A Mother's Love
by pinktink008
Summary: Second in an AU series. Follows the events of "Unfinished Business", which you might want to read first. Sam and Dean investigate a series of child disappearances in St. Louis, Missouri. Features an OFC so there are hints of Sam/OFC. R&R. COMPLETE
1. Chapter 1

"**A Mother's Love"**

**Disclaimer**: I don't own _Supernatural _or its wonderful characters. I'm using them with love, care and the utmost respect. Please don't sue me for writing this. Besides, I'm rather poor and you wouldn't get much even if you did sue me. Emerson Weir is my OFC and like her or not, I own her! This story takes place about three weeks after "Unfinished Business", my first _Supernatural_ fanfic. It might be wise to read that one first if you haven't already. Please note that this is the second story in a series. These stories follow the episode "Home" and take the Winchesters on an alternate route than the one they're currently on according to the show.

**A/N:** Mount Redding, Missouri is a fictional city, of my own creation. Ottumwa, Iowa and St. Louis, Missouri – not so much. I tried to use _real _locations in those cities but as I've never been to either city, I may have gotten some of the geographical stuff wrong. Please don't sue me for that either.

* * *

_Ottumwa, Iowa _

_Wapello Motel_

Sam blankly stared at the laptop screen, which seemed to be nothing more than a blur at the moment. His focus, his attention, wasn't at all on what he was doing. Not when all he could seem to think about was Emerson Weir and Mount Redding, Missouri and what had happened there just a few weeks ago. He sighed heavily as he tried to refocus his thoughts.

It had been about three weeks since they left the sleepy little town of Mount Redding. Sam couldn't really get anything out of his brother about what had happened after he kind of 'fell asleep'. The most that Sam seemed to be able to get out of Dean was that Sam had been 'asleep' for three days. When he woke up, Sam found that they were on the highway and were several hundred miles outside of the small town. Dean had been driving as if they were being chased, which in a way, Sam guessed, was almost true.

Dean explained to Sam – briefly and only once at that – that Emerson had said good-bye before they left and he had been driving ever since. And Sam resigned himself that it was all that he'd get out of his brother. Just that Dean had been driving for three days without more than one 15 minute nap, occasionally stopping for gas, food, coffee and bathroom breaks.

It took a little work on his part but Sam had eventually been able to convince his brother to stop at a rest stop along the way. He figured they both needed to stretch their legs and breathe some fresh air. At least that was what Sam initially told Dean. While there, however, he tried to call to Emerson. Dean did, too, without Sam knowing about it at the time. That was something they talked about later. Neither of them, however, had gotten through to her. Both ended up leaving her the first of many voice mail messages. Sam took over driving after their stop, letting Dean finally get some well-earned rest. That, too, took some convincing on Sam's part. It was, after all, never easy for Dean to let Sam drive in the first place.

Now, it had been about three weeks since they had last heard from Emerson and they were both getting worried although the boys seemed to show it in their own ways. Sam seemed to almost obsess about it and Dean seemed to quietly take it all in. Actually it had now reached a point where Sam was annoyed with how laid back Dean seemed to be about it all. Not that he expected Dean to get all obsessive about this but he just wanted to see his brother actually show some signs of concern. He didn't think that was too much to ask anyway.

They _had _worked a simple job in southern Iowa a couple of days earlier however. It hadn't been anything really significant. Just a minor haunting in a small house that was more aggravating to the people living there than anything else. No one had been injured but there were a lot of frayed nerves and the family desperately wanted whatever was in their home out. Still, it had been a decent distraction for the boys.

That little side job didn't mean that either of them had stopped trying to get a hold of Emerson though. Temporarily distracted or not, neither of them could shake the feeling that something was very, very wrong because that was the only plausible explanation they could come up with for Emerson not answering her phone and not calling them back. Sam and Dean had tried calling Emerson at least two dozen times apiece. They had probably left that many voice mail messages for her as well. Sam thought he had gotten through once but whoever picked up hung up right away. It was all very disconcerting.

Sam now glanced over his shoulder at his brother. Dean was comfortably sprawled out on one of the full-sized beds in their motel room with newspapers from various cities and towns in Iowa, Wisconsin, Illinois, Missouri and Ohio surrounding him. They were doing individual searches for a new job mostly because Dean was itching for something to do. He said that he had 'cabin fever' and if Sam didn't want him to go crazy, they needed to find something to do. Dean hated sitting idly by, waiting for something to happen.

After glancing at Dean, Sam turned his attention back to the laptop's screen and forced himself to focus as he searched the website for the St. Louis Post-Dispatch. He sighed again and tried to shake off the cobwebs in his own head. Taking a sip of the coffee he had next to him, he was doing his best to concentrate. He felt physically worn out from all the searching they were doing. Sam rubbed his eyes with the heel of his hands before he scrolled down the page, having been searching the site for local news stories.

A story had suddenly caught his eye for some reason that he couldn't put his finger on. He cocked his head to the side with this look on his face that showed he was curious. He got this _feeling _when he read it. That _feeling_ seemed significant so he figured the least he could do was mention it to his brother. Worst case scenario, Dean would shoot Sam down. But if he was lucky, then they'd have something to do to keep Dean from driving Sam crazy.

"Hey, Dean," Sam called, nodding his head toward the screen of the laptop. "Come and have look at this."

Dean sat up, stretched out his legs, rolled his shoulders and yawned before rolling off the bed and slowly walking over. He rested one of his hands on the back of Sam's chair, the other on the desk and looked over his brother's shoulder to quickly skim the story. The whole thing couldn't have been more than two or three paragraphs long at best. "Three little girls. Presumed to have been kidnapped," he said with a shrug, taking his hand off of the desk and standing up straighter. "I hardly think this is the makings of a job, Sammy."

Sam rolled his eyes, biting his tongue before he said something about being called Sammy. It wasn't like Dean listened anyway when he complained about that nickname. He minimized the web page they were looking at and brought up a second one that he had saved with a similar story that had been printed a couple of days earlier. "For some reason, the authorities made more noise about it when it was just _two _girls but one of them is the daughter of a local police captain," he said with a shrug. He pointed at the pictures of the two previous girls which were near the top of the page with the story right beside that. "That makes at least three girls in the last two weeks, Dean. All with long, blonde hair and blue eyes, all 10-years-old and more importantly all three were taken from the **exact **same park, from the **exact **same _spot_." He looked over his shoulder at Dean with this 'see, I'm on to something' kind of a look. "I think we should at least look into this one."

"And this has absolutely nothing to do with the fact that we'll have to drive through Mount Redding on the way to St. Louis, right?"

Sam softly sighed, closing his eyes for a moment and taking a deep breath. That was something he didn't want to talk with Dean about. "I can start doing some more in-depth research now. You know, maybe find a pattern that goes beyond the obvious," he said, pointedly ignoring Dean's question. "Try to get us a little more to go on than what we have from these articles."

"Sam," Dean said a bit forcefully as he took his hand off the chair, standing completely straight now. "I'm serious."

Sam slowly nodded his head and turned in the chair to look up at his brother. "It seems like something Emerson might be interested in helping us with," he finally said although he sounded reluctant to admit it. "I thought that maybe if we stopped in to see her, we could see how she'd react to that."

"I honestly doubt that she's going leave with us anytime soon," Dean replied with a light chuckle as he walked back towards the bed. He sat on the left corner of it now. As he sat down Dean softly sighed but it was hardly a noticeable sound. "That's if she's even still ..."

"Don't say it, Dean. Okay?" Sam closed his eyes for a long moment. He wouldn't even _consider _the possibility that Dean was hinting at. There was just no possible way that was what had happened. Emerson had to just be avoiding them for some reason or that was what Sam tried to think every time he got her voice mail when he called her anyway. It was somehow more comforting to think she was just ignoring them. "She's fine."

"How do we know for sure?" Dean's voice was firm but a bit of emotion briefly seemed to show through. He was probably as worried about Emerson as Sam was but he was doing his best not let it to show. That would mean showing a moment of weakness and he wasn't going to let Sam see something like that if he could help it. "I mean, we've been calling her for like three weeks now, right? We've left her at least two dozen messages apiece. She hasn't answered her phone **once **since we left and she told me – point blank, Sammy – that she was going to go after that thing. We have to at least consider the possibility that she's ..."

"I'm serious, Dean. Don't say it. She's fine."

Dean sighed more heavily this time, his shoulders sagging slightly. It was like the thought alone was so heavy, too heavy for him to bear. "So what are we going to do? Huh, Sam? Are you planning to drive up there, stop in her store and just _invite _Emerson along? Do you honestly think that she's going to drop everything to come with us?" He shook his head. "Look. I miss Emerson, too but ..."

"Wait. What? You what?"

Dean chuckled, putting on a bit of bravado for Sam now. He cleared his throat before saying anything though in case any emotion would have slipped out to betray that bravado he was putting on now. "You missed all the wonderful bonding we did while you were 'asleep'," he said in a teasing manner, wiggling his eyebrows a bit. "That girlfriend of yours? She's a great kisser, Sammy." He made a 'kissing' face and gave Sam a big, bright smile.

Sam rolled his eyes, smiling a bit himself. He shook his head in an amused manner. He knew what Dean was trying to say in his own twisted way and Sam was glad to hear it. It was probably the first real sign Dean had shown of his concern over Emerson. "Then you know why we have to at least try, Dean."

Dean's smile toned down significantly and he slowly nodded his head. "Okay. You know what?" He clapped his hands once and rubbed them together before he pushed up off of the corner of the bed to get up. He grabbed his cell phone from the nightstand and wiggled it to show it to Sam, making his way to the door. "Why don't you see what else you can dig up about these 'kidnapings' or whatever the local police are calling what's going on? And I'll try to get a hold of her _one more time_."

Sam had a faint smile on his lips and nodded. He sat at the desk and watched as Dean walked toward the door while dialing Emerson's cell phone number. Sam quickly turned his attention to the laptop again, barely noticing if Dean was still in the room or not. He sighed and rubbed his eyes again before he dove into researching the job, hoping he wasn't leading Dean on some wild goose chase so he could see Emerson again.


	2. Chapter 2

**A/N:** Not long, I know. Sorry. Same disclaimers and notes from chapter one apply. As does my desire to read reviews should anyone feel so inclined to send me any. I really do appreciate any feedback. It feeds the muse that keeps me writing after all!

* * *

_Mount Redding, Missouri _

_The Ace of Cups Magick Shoppe_

Emerson stared at her cell phone, desperately trying to will herself not to listen to those voice mail messages again. She had listened to the messages that Sam and Dean had left her at least a dozen times now but she couldn't bring herself to pick up the phone when one of them called. She usually turned off her phone or silenced the ringer when she saw it was one of the Winchesters calling. Emerson knew she'd never be able to talk to Sam, at least not without bursting into tears, but she figured she could at least carry on something resembling a conversation with Dean. That's why she didn't understand why she couldn't pick up the phone when one of them called. If it was Sam, she could always hang up after all. She'd done that to him once already.

Emerson quickly looked up when the bell on her door jingled, jolted out of her thoughts by the sudden sound. She knew who it was, however, and was happy for the distraction it would provide her. Becky walked in, her long blond hair in pigtails, which only served to make the 15-year-old look about 12 years old today.

Emerson forced a little smile onto her lips, setting her bright pink cell phone onto the counter top. Part of her was happy to not be alone anymore because when she was alone, she seemed to think way too much. And that was never a good thing because then her imagination seemed to get the best of her and Emerson would usually wind up on the verge of tears again. Becky pointedly ignored her boss however as the teenager dropped her backpack on the floor and headed into the backroom.

"So how was school today?" Emerson asked, doing her best to sound cheerful and nonchalant. When she got no response, she tried a different tact to see what she might get out of Becky. "You know, it's been pretty slow today, Bec." She rolled her eyes at that, her smile more genuine now. "Well, it's _always _slow. But if you want to leave early today, I won't mind."

Becky walked out of the back now and turned to face her boss. She folded her arms across her chest and deeply frowned. "Why don't you just talk to them?"

Emerson slightly shook her head, trying her best to look confused although she doubted she was fooling anyone with that look. Somehow Becky seemed to be able to read her so well anyway. She knew what Becky was talking about but didn't want to get into a discussion about it with a teenager. She didn't know how Becky could understand what she was going through right now. "I don't know what you're talking about, Bec." Her voice was soft and her eyes were downcast though.

"Oh, _please_. Don't act like you don't know," Becky continued, her voice getting a little forceful now. "I know they've been calling you. I can tell when one of them calls, you know. You stare at the phone and let it ring and ring. Or you just turn it off." Becky was raising her voice as she went on. "Then when you think I'm not looking, you listen to the messages and you cry. I've seen you cry more in the last _three weeks _then I've **ever **seen you cry. Why didn't you go with them, Emmy? Why?"

Emerson adamantly shook her head now. She swallowed hard, not sure she could form a sentence for a long moment. What Becky said hit her harder than the teenager might have been aware of or maybe that had been Becky's intent, Emerson couldn't be sure of that. Either way, it hurt her a lot more than she had expected it to. "You don't understand, Becky," she said. Her voice cracked a bit. "I can't leave. Not yet. I just ..."

"Don't **lie **to me, Emmy," Becky snapped before Emerson could continue. She didn't start this conversation just to hear a bunch of half-assed excuses. "You think I don't know what's going on around here but I **know**. I know what you've been trying to do and I know that if you do it, you could die. Is it that important? I know how you feel about ..."

"No, you _don't _know," Emerson replied, forcefully shaking her head, her voice cracking with emotion as she raised her voice now too. Knowing that Becky was about to throw Sam's name in her face hit Emerson quite hard. "You _don't _understand. You _can't _understand! You're only 15, Becky! You don't understand even if you think that you do. I can't talk to them, okay? Not until it's done."

Becky threw her hands up in defeat, rolling her eyes and sighing heavily. She understood more than Emerson gave her credit for although she didn't know how Emerson could be behaving this way. She didn't say anything as stormed off, snatching her backpack off of the floor on her way out. Becky threw open the front door and let it slam shut behind her.

Emerson quickly wiped her eyes and took a couple of deep breaths. A few of tears had fallen while she was arguing with Becky and she hadn't noticed them until that moment. Just as the door closed behind Becky, Emerson's cell phone rang. Emerson jumped, the sudden sound startling her. She looked at the ringing cell phone and swallowed hard. Picking it up, she saw the name on her caller ID and closed her eyes for a moment, letting the phone continue to ring. This time, however, she actually flipped her phone open and answered it.


	3. Chapter 3

**A/N:** No, I haven't forgotten how to update my story. I've been busy with work but here's the next chapter. Hopefully I'll finish writing it before I finish posting it here. :)

* * *

_Wapello Motel_

Dean had to fight to keep from making any noise that might indicate that he'd gotten through to Emerson. He wanted to shout or something as soon as he heard that 'hello' from her, as soon as he knew it wasn't just the outgoing message on her voice mail. And he would have recognized that immediately since Dean had heard it so often lately. He glanced over his shoulder at Sam when he heard her almost curt greeting and noticed that his little brother was too distracted by the research he was working on to notice anything else that might be going on around him. Dean used that to his advantage now and quickly walked outside, waiting until he closed the door before he said anything in response. He didn't want to get Sam's hopes up until he knew what was going on.

"So why in the **hell **haven't you answered your phone in the last three weeks?" Dean suddenly asked. His voice was little more than a harsh whisper just in case Sam managed to somehow listen in.

Emerson heavily sighed on the other end of the line. "Well, it's good to hear from you again, too, Dean."

He thought he could hear how tired she was by the tone of her voice, which worried him even if he wouldn't come out and say it. Dean took a couple of long strides away from the door and looked back at it before he started pacing what would have been the length of the room had he still been inside. "So you're okay then?"

"I'm talking to you, aren't I?"

Dean could picture Emerson standing there with one hand on her hip, rolling her eyes at him. It made him smile, although he was still pacing at the moment. His voice was back to its normal tone and pitch again though. "Yeah, well, you can't blame a guy for asking considering what the state of things were when Sam and I left." He glanced toward the door again, not saying anything for a long moment. "Look. Is that thing ..."

"I can't do it alone, Dean," Emerson quickly replied, seemingly knowing that Dean couldn't bring himself to finish that question anyway.

"Well, we could always ..."

"I don't want to get you two involved if I can help it," she said, cutting Dean off before he could say anything else. It was again like she just knew what Dean was thinking. "It'll be taken care of. I called in a favor. Don't worry about it, Dean. I've got this." She paused for a long moment. "How's Sam anyway? Is he okay?"

Dean nodded a little, almost forgetting for a moment that Emerson wasn't standing there in front of him because he could picture her so clearly in his mind while they spoke. "Yeah. It happened like you said it would. Sam 'woke up' about three days later. He's fine now. He's been worried about you actually."

"Well, I've been worried about you both, too."

Dean smiled a little again, biting back a more sarcastic response. "Whatever."

"So is that it? Was there some other reason you called, Dean, or was this just a social call?"

"Well, now that you ask ..." He chuckled a bit at that. "I wanted to find out why you haven't been answering your goddamn phone for the last three weeks but ..."

Emerson heavily sighed on the other end of the line. "I've been busy."

Sam suddenly swung open the door to their motel room much to his older brother's surprise. He had seen Dean pace past the window several times now and knew something was up. He had a hopeful look on his face because it seemed like Dean was carrying on a conversation with more than Emerson's voice mail at the moment. "Is it her?" he asked in a harsh whisper. When Dean looked at him, Sam tried again, his head cocked to the side a bit as he looked at Dean. "Dean, is that Emerson?"

Dean quickly waved his brother off, knowing that he was close to getting an actual answer out of Emerson this time. "Don't hand me some bullshit excuse, okay?" he said, still waving Sam off as his little brother got even closer. He actually had to smack Sam's hand a couple of times when his brother went to grab the phone away from him. "Tell me the truth, Emerson. Why have you been avoiding our calls?"

Sam wasn't deterred by the smacks to his hand. In fact, it actually seemed to encourage him even more. He briefly struggled with Dean for the phone. It took just enough time to keep Dean from hearing whether or not Emerson answered his question. Not that it bothered Sam in the least. His intent was getting that cell phone away from Dean. If Dean didn't get an answer to his question, that didn't matter to Sam.

Sam finally snatched the phone away with a touch of a triumphant look on his face. "Emerson?" He ignored the fact that Dean was now glaring at him.

There was a long pause on the other end. Emerson drew in a sharp, deep breath and softly, slowly exhaled before even saying anything. "Sam? **Wow**." She paused for another long moment as if she were searching for something to say. "Yeah, it's me." Her voice was soft but full of emotion. "It's good to hear your voice again, Sam."

Sam softly smiled as soon as he heard Emerson's voice. "Yeah, it's good to hear your voice again, too," he said. His voice was a little soft as he spoke as well. "How – how are you? Is everything okay? I mean, we haven't heard from you in ..."

"Yeah, I know, Sam. _Three weeks_. Dean's already informed me of that little fact." Emerson warily sighed. "I'm fine, okay? Everything is fine."

"Well, Dean and I are going to be working a job in St. Louis," he said, a hopeful look on his face even as he spoke. "So we're going to have to pass through Mount Redding and we thought that maybe we could stop by and see you."

"Don't, Sam."

"Don't?"

Emerson sighed again, a little heavier this time. "You don't need risk it, Sam," she said. Her voice was soft, her tone almost exhausted. "Take another route to St. Louis. I don't want anything to happen to you, okay?" Her voice kind of cracked at the end. She took a deep breath and slowly exhaled.

Sam closed his eyes, shaking his head. "No," he said, sounding a bit stubborn. "We'll talk about this in a couple of days. When we get to town."

"Sam, _please_." It was clear by her tone of voice that Emerson was begging him to stay away.

"I said that we'll talk about this in a couple of days. We're coming to town. Maybe you can come with us on this one."

"Sam!" Emerson's tone was a bit forceful this time since begging didn't seem to deter him in the least. She was going to try every tact that she had to, to get him understand.

"We'll see you soon," Sam replied, remaining stubborn at the moment. Before she could say anything else, he hung up the phone. It wasn't like him but he didn't want to give her a chance to talk him out of this and if he stayed on the line with her, Sam was certain Emerson would have been able to talk him into staying away.

"Sam, you _do _know that thing is still in town, right?"

Sam shook his head at the question Dean was _really _trying to ask him, a stubborn look on his face as he looked at his brother. His jaw was set and he looked rather determined right now as well. No matter what it took, he was going to get Emerson to listen to him. "Look, the quickest route to St. Louis takes us through Mount Redding. We're going to have to pass through there anyway. Maybe once we're there, I can talk her into coming along."

It was Dean's turn to shake his head now, a disbelieving look on his face. "You can try but I'm telling you, dude, she's about as bull headed about shit like this as you're being about this right now. That girl is stubborn as hell. If she doesn't want to go, she's not going to go."

Sam sighed a bit, scratching the back of his neck. "I'm still going to try."


	4. Chapter 4

**A/N:** Progress is being made. More chapters have been written. Here's an update. :) Enjoy!

* * *

_The Ace of Cups Magick Shoppe_

_one day later_

Emerson nervously played with the hem of the short sleeved blue and gray flannel shirt that she had on over a heather gray long sleeved thermal t-shirt. Her blue-green eyes were fixed on the door, waiting for something to happen. She knew it was only a matter of time. Her posture stiffened slightly when she heard that familiar jingle.

Dean quickly walked in, eying Emerson suspiciously. She had been too vague with him on the phone, which he _still _didn't like. But he had to admit – to himself at least – that he had been glad to hear her voice again after worrying for three weeks about whether or not she was even still alive. "You know, you never _did _tell me why you haven't been answering your goddamn phone," he said, by way of greeting her.

Emerson's body relaxed completely at the sound of his voice and she gave Dean a slow, soft smile. It was one that actually reached her eyes as well, which was more than she could say for many of the other times these past few days that she'd forced a smile onto her face. "Yeah, it's good to see you again too, Dean." Her gaze shifted to the door for a moment and then back to Dean again. "So where's Sam?"

"Becky caught him as we were getting out of the car," he curtly replied. She was dancing around his question and Dean wanted an answer. In fact, he wanted that answer _right now_. He fixed her with an impatient look. "So?"

"I told you already, Dean. I've been busy."

"Well, you look like shit so I know that you've at least been _trying _to kill that demon, right?" He paused for a second, watching her carefully. "Right?"

Emerson sighed heavily, rolling her eyes at how insistent Dean was being about this. Her not answering her phone seemed rather trivial to her at this point but she supposed it meant more to him than it did to her. She still had that faint smile on her lips though. "Like I told you on the phone, Dean, I can't do it alone. Whatever it is, it's getting stronger every day. But I have help on the way."

He stood there for a long moment, watching her and trying to figure out whether or not he should say anything about the job he and Sam were working on. He knew Sam had already mentioned it so he figured it couldn't hurt. It wasn't like he'd be springing this on Emerson or anything and he might even be able to soften her up for Sam or something. "You know what, Em? Maybe you should come with us."

Dean took her shocked expression to mean that Emerson wanted him to keep talking so that was just what he did. He thought maybe it might work if he and Sam both asked her about coming along or at least it seemed likely now. "We've been doing our research on this job in St. Louis. Well, Sam's been doing his research anyway." He chuckled lightly and shrugged a bit. "There have been ten kids that have vanished over the last two months from this one park. We could use your help on this."

Emerson shook her head. "I can't leave town until I know it's safe here, Dean," she told him, her voice soft but her tone was clearly insistent. "And we both know that it won't be safe until that thing is dead and this is all over."

Dean shook his head now, something akin to a defeated look on his face. He sighed softly, figuring that at least he'd tried but still even he had held on to a little bit of hope that she'd say yes once she was face to face with Sam and Dean. "Will you at least think about it?"

"Dean, I'm serious. I'm not going with you two."

The bell jingled on the door before Dean could say anything else. Emerson looked up to see Sam and Becky walking in together. Becky had a smile on her face, looking as if she was up to something. Emerson eyed Becky for a long moment and then looked at Sam. She smiled, feeling herself somehow relax more in his presence. It was a little strange but it was a pleasant feeling nonetheless. She gave him a little wave, wigging her fingers at him. "Sam," was all Emerson could manage to say. She nodded her head at him.

Sam had a crooked grin on his face as he looked at her, nodding in return. "Hey. I take it that Dean told you about the job already," he ventured with a sigh and an expectant look on his face. The little nod Emerson gave him was all the response he needed. "And you're still saying 'no' to this, aren't you?"

"Sam, I can't go."

He slowly shook his head, closing his eyes for a moment. He rubbed his eyes with the heels of his hands and when he looked at Emerson again, he had a slightly hopeful look on his face again. It was almost like watching a little boy trying to beg for something that he really, really wanted from the store. "Maybe you need to walk away from the problem for a bit," Sam said with a fluid half-shrug of his shoulders. "It's not like we're asking you to stay with us. We just need your help on this one."

Emerson rested her elbow on the desk and lightly rested her chin in her hand as she watched the brothers. It would have been cute how much they were trying to talk her into this. That was, of course, if it wasn't getting a bit irritating to have them ask her over and over again, knowing what answer they'd get from her every time. "And I'm still going to say no," she softly said, looking right at Sam as she spoke. "You guys have worked countless jobs before this one, right? At least enough to know what you're doing. You don't need me along, Sam. You _want _me to come along."

"And is that so bad?"

She shook her head, rolling her eyes a bit. "I can't pack up everything and leave." Her voice was deceptively calm at the moment because inside Emerson felt like shouting at him. She couldn't believe how stubborn Sam was being right now.

"I'm not asking you to."

"But you _are_ asking me to do that, Sam. You say you just want help on this 'one job' but this 'one job' will lead to another and that one will lead to another," Emerson said. She lifted her chin out of her hand. She rested both of her hands on the desk and sighed a bit. "I can't do that. Not yet, Sam. Maybe not ever. Can't you understand that?"

Dean could feel the tension starting to build and grabbed Sam's wrist, giving his brother's arm a tug in the direction of the door. He figured it would be best to get the hell out of Dodge before things really got heated. "Come on, Sammy," he softly said so only Sam could hear him before he let go of Sam's wrist. "You want to try this again with her later, fine. Let's grab something to eat and fill up the car first. Then you can come back here and argue with her until you get sick of it or until one of you breaks down and gives in."

Sam looked over at Dean. He started to shake his head when he felt someone gently touch his arm. He looked over to see Becky standing next to him, smiling up at him.

"Let me try talking to her, Sam," Becky softly said, almost whispering to Sam. "Okay?"

Sam faintly smiled and nodded his head just a bit, just enough for Becky to tell that he was agreeing to that, although he still had a slightly confused and hurt look on his face. He wasn't sure what Becky could do to convince Emerson but he figured it wouldn't hurt to let her try. "Yeah. Sure." He looked at Dean and nodded. "Let's go."

Emerson softly sighed as she watched Sam and Dean walk out of the store. The look on Becky's face clearly told her that this argument wasn't over. She shook her head at that and rolled her eyes again, just a little anyway. "Look. Don't you start, too, okay?" Her voice broke at least once when she spoke.

"Emmy? What if I could promise you that while you were gone with them," Becky suddenly said, "that this thing you guys keep talking about will be taken care of?"

Emerson had a curious and confused look on her face. There was no way that Becky could be asking her something like that, not when the girl had no idea what as going on. Right? "What are you talking about?"

Becky had a faint smile, looking again like she was up to something. "That doesn't matter, okay? Just answer me, Emmy. If I could promise you that while you were gone that this thing you guys keep talking about will be taken care of, what would you do? Would you go with them then?"

Emerson shook her head as she slipped off of the stool. "You don't know what you're talking about, Becky. And the last thing I would _want _or _need _on my mind while I was gone would be that you were back here, trying something stupid. Something that could get you and others killed," she replied. There was a gentle forcefulness to her voice. "So the answer is no. No, Becky. I still wouldn't go."

Becky's shoulders slumped and she heavily sighed, a pouty sort of frown on her lips. "But I know how much you want to go with Sam and Dean. I know how much you want to go with _Sam_," she said, a smile tugging on the corners of her mouth now. Her voice was soft although she wasn't giving up yet. "Why can't you just trust me, Emmy?"

Emerson softly sighed, brushing some of her dark red hair away from her eyes and tucking it behind both of her ears. She shook her head and patted the stool where she had been sitting, beckoning Becky to sit there. "I trust you, Becky," Emerson said as the blond teenager sat down. "I _do_ but if you're talking about the same thing that Sam, Dean and I have been talking about, then I can't ask you to do that for me. It's dangerous enough for _me _to be trying this. You said that yourself. I could die doing this. We both know that but I'll be the one to take care of this. You don't need to worry about it, okay? Like I told Dean, I've got this covered. I'll take care of it. You just worry about school and boys and normal teen stuff."

Becky pouted and her shoulders seemed to slump even more. She muttered something under her breath but she was so quiet that Emerson never clearly heard what Becky said. She rested her elbow on the counter and rested her chin on her fist. "Whatever."


	5. Chapter 5

**A/N: **Ooo, a big update today. L I'm feeling good about the story now, feeling like I'm ready to make more progress and ready to post more so I don't know about daily updates but they'll be a little more 'regular', I hope. :)

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_Meg's Diner_

Sam slid into an empty booth, shrugging off his jacket and picked up one of the menus that had been left on the table. The last time they had been to this place he hadn't eaten much of anything and he wasn't sure he'd be able to eat much of anything this time either. His stomach was in knots while he tried to think of a way to get Emerson to come with them on this job. He looked up slightly as Dean sat down across from him. Sam sighed a bit before looking back at the menu.

"So am I going to have to put up with you being a whiny little bitch about this now?" Dean asked with a slight smile on his face as he pulled off his leather jacket.

Sam looked up again and sighed, rolling his eyes a bit. "Shut up, Dean."

Dean pushed up the sleeves of his long sleeved shirt and grabbed the other menu, starting to scan it and chuckling to himself. He and Sam had spent a little over a week in Mount Redding once before and this was the one place where Dean actually _liked_ to eat so he knew the menu pretty well. It hadn't changed since the last time he had seen it either. He glanced up at Sam every now and again though, as if he was checking on his brother. Dean cleared his throat when he looked up for about the fifth time, getting a bit uncomfortable with the silence between them. "So this job in St. Louis," he finally said, figuring they needed something other than Emerson to talk about. "Fill me in on everything you found out."

Sam set aside his menu without having looked at it. He'd glanced at it, yes, but he hadn't really looked at it. "I told you everything I know already."

"Well, then tell me everything you know _again_," Dean said, sounding a bit exasperated. This was supposed to be making Sam less pissy, not further getting his brother's panties in a bunch. "I want to make sure we're all set going into this. The less research we have to do when we get to St. Louis, the sooner we can kill whatever it is and move on."

Sam closed his eyes and softly sighed, shaking his head at his brother. It would mean less research for him anyway to know what was going on, which would actually be beneficial in the long run. "Well, we know that there's been reports of ten girls that have gone missing in the past two months," he said after he opened his eyes to look at Dean. Sam dug through the bag that they kept their laptop in and pulled out the printouts he had made of each of the missing girls. He slid the ten sheets of paper across the table to Dean. "And I checked into that park where they've all disappeared. Tower Grove Park? Dean, it's frickin' **huge**. Close to 300 acres of land." Sam shook his head at that piece of information. "I'm not surprised the police can't find them."

"That right there makes it sound like this isn't our kind of gig," Dean said. He was looking at the menu as he spoke. He looked up briefly and slid the papers towards himself, setting aside the menu for the moment. As he went through them he realized that he was looking at copies of those 'missing' posters that were posted on bulletin boards at stores and were probably in every post office in the state of Missouri at this point. Dean sighed and slid the papers back to Sam. He didn't want to think about missing kids if this wasn't the kind of thing they dealt with. "So what makes this our kind of 'thing', Sam?" That was something his brother hadn't touched on and it was what Dean really wanted to know.

Sam softly sighed as he glanced at the papers Dean had slid towards him before he gathered them up and put them back in the bag. He had a theory about what was going on in Tower Grove Park but he wasn't sure about it yet. At least not sure enough to tell Dean. "Look, Dean, all of these girls are 10 years old. All them have long blonde hair and blue eyes," he said, pointing out all of the things they already knew. "They've all 'disappeared' from the exact same spot in that park. There's something about it that doesn't seem right."

Dean nodded but his attention was clearly elsewhere. Their waitress had come over while Sam was talking to bring them water and to check on them. She was young – maybe just a bit younger than Sam – with long brown hair that she had tied back in a low ponytail and big, brown eyes. She was tall and trim and, by all definitions of the word, 'cute' so Dean couldn't resist a little light flirtation, giving her a big grin.

"So are you boys ready to order?" she asked, looking from Sam to Dean as she spoke. She had a cheerful tone and smiled back when she noticed Dean smiling at her.

"Is there anything that you might recommend?" Dean looked at her name tag, letting his gaze linger longer than was necessary on her chest. "Abby?"

Sam kicked Dean from under the table and gave their waitress, Abby, a polite smile. "Can you give us a little more time please?"

Abby nodded with a soft smile when she looked at Sam. "Sure thing," she said to Sam, tapping her pen against her order pad. She turned her attention to Dean as she tucked her pen behind her left ear, giving Dean a quick but flirty smile before she walked away.

"What the hell did you do that for?" Dean asked, keeping his voice low. Sam had kicked him hard enough that Dean figured he'd end up with at least a small bruise on his shin now.

Sam softly sighed and shook his head, not able to believe that Dean would be more interested in flirting with some waitress when they had other things to worry about. Well actually Sam could believe it but he just preferred not to. "We don't have time right now for you to hook up with some random girl," he said, giving Dean a stern look.

"_Dude_. It's called flirting, Sammy. You should try it some time. It doesn't hurt, I promise. In fact, you should try that on Emerson. It might help you get her to come along with us." Dean wiggled his eyebrows at Sam and gave him a mischievous, boyish looking smile.

Sam shook his head, a smile tugging at the corners of his mouth despite the fact that he didn't want to smile at what his brother said. He should have almost been offended but somehow he managed to wind up slightly amused. Still Sam decided to let that comment drop. "So about this job," he said, deciding to steer them back to what they were supposed to be talking about in the first place. "What do you think?"

"I think we have to do a little more digging," Dean said. His attention was back on the menu now. "Maybe there's some pattern that we're missing."

Sam nodded, glancing at the menu again while Dean spoke. "I was thinking about that too," he said, knowing that he'd been thinking that for quite some time. "I've been digging as deeply as possible using the Internet but I figured that once we get to St. Louis, we can get something from the local police or the library or something. I know that ten missing girls in two months is a lot but with the size of the park ..."

"The age and hair and eye color thing? That could just be a coincidence," Dean said, looking up at his brother. He knew where Sam was going with this. "Look. This is your job, Sammy. You found it. Is it something we should be looking into or not?" He had heard the way Sam seemed to waver on whether or not this was worth their time. He didn't know if that had to do with Emerson or if Sam wasn't sure about this anymore.

Sam looked up at Dean and nodded. "It is," he said. "It's just ..."

Dean shook his head, interrupting Sam before he could finish his thoughts. "Whether or not she goes with us," he said with a bit of force in his voice, "is this something we should be looking into, Sam?" He knew that was the right way to word it. His tone wasn't mean. It was emphatic.

"It _is_," Sam said with a nod of his head. "This is definitely our kind of 'thing', Dean. I just think that we might need to dig a little deeper on this." He had this _feeling_ about the job that he couldn't shake. It felt significant and Sam figured that meant something.

Abby came back, looking from Dean to Sam and back to Dean again before she said anything. She smiled at them both, although she seemed to smile more at Dean than she did at Sam. "So are you boys ready to order now?" she asked, her tone cheerful.

Dean laced his fingers together and set his hands over his menu as he looked up at the young waitress. "You must have just started working here," he said with a grin, jumping right back into flirting with her. "Because this is my second time passing through Mount Redding and I don't remember you working here the last time."

Abby shifted her weight from one leg to the other and gave Dean a soft but flirty smile. "I just started last week," she said with a nod. "I took a break from college to come help my parents out. This helps pay the bills so my mom can spend time with my brother."

Sam gave Abby an interested but almost confused look, cocking his head to the side. "Your brother? What happened to your brother?"

Abby looked at Sam as soon as he spoke and slowly nodded. Her smile was still soft but without that flirty quality it had when she smiled at Dean. "Yeah, it was the strangest thing actually. He was totally fine until about two weeks ago. Then he got really sick. It's gotten bad enough that he had to be admitted to the local hospital. The doctors can't find a thing wrong with him either. He's just ..." She shivered at what she wanted to say. "It's like he's dead to the world." The tone of her voice had gotten soft and sad when she said that.

Sam looked to Dean with a 'see?' look on his face, his eyebrows raised. For his part, Dean subtly shook his head at Sam. He'd been building a nice rapport with the waitress and Sam had pretty much dashed any hopes Dean had of 'hooking up' with Abby by bringing up her little brother right now.

"Wow," Dean said, trying to get Abby to focus her attention on him. "That must be hard on you, Abby." He gave her his best sympathetic look with a soft and reassuring smile. "So you put college on hold for your family, huh? That's a noble thing to do."

Sam kicked Dean under the table again. He made a point of kicking the same spot on his brother's shin that he'd kicked earlier. Now he was definitely aiming to bruise his big brother. Dean made a soft grunting sound as the toe of Sam's shoe made contact and gave Sam a reproachful look. Sam shook his head in response to the look, knowing Dean was playing on the young waitress's pain to get her phone number or worse. He wasn't going to let Dean do that if he could help it.

Abby smiled a little and nodded. She seemed to hardly notice when Sam kicked Dean or the looks the brothers were exchanging. Or if she noticed, she didn't say anything. "Joey and I are about 6 years apart. He's 15," she said. "I can always go back and finish off my last couple of semesters of college once he gets better. It's not going anywhere and family's more important."

Dean nodded a little, still giving her his best sympathetic look. "Well, if you ever need a shoulder to cry on, at least while I'm in town ..."

"So, Abby," Sam quickly said, interrupting Dean. "I think we might be ready to order. Right, Dean?" He gave his older brother a 'knock it off' kind of look.

Dean chuckled at the look he got from Sam and nodded. "Yeah, I think we might be."

Abby nodded, still smiling. She was tapping her pen on her order pad and looking from Sam to Dean, waiting for one of them to order. "Don't everybody order at once," she teased with a laugh. The look on her face clearly said 'well?' as she looked at them.

"That meatloaf plate looks good," Dean said, glancing at Sam long enough to give his younger brother a dirty look. "And a Coke."

Sam nodded and closed his menu. "I'll have the same." He hadn't bothered to pay any attention to the menu in the first place so his plan had been to order whatever Dean was getting anyway. He gave Abby a polite smile. "Thanks."

Abby nodded as she quickly jotted down their orders. She looked up and tucked her pen behind her left ear with a smile on her lips. "I'll be back with those Cokes in a minute, boys," she said. Her gaze lingered a little on Dean as she walked away.

"What the hell are you doing, Sam?" Dean hissed as soon as Abby was out of earshot. "I had a shot with her." He glanced over his shoulder to look at Abby as she slipped behind the counter to put their order in. "I gotta find some way to pass the time while you and your little girlfriend argue about whether or not she should come along."

"And you were planning on passing the time with Abby how exactly?" Sam gave Dean a little knowing look and shook his head. "That's the last thing that she needs right now and you know it, Dean."

"She needs some sympathy, Sammy. A shoulder to cry on." Dean nodded his head. "Dude, I'm not a complete jerk. Anything else that might happen is a nice little bonus."

Sam laughed a little, shaking his head at his brother's words. "That's all you think about, isn't it? You're just looking for a chance to ..."

"Hey. Hey now, Sammy." Dean shook his head with a bit of a serious look on his face. "This isn't about sex, okay? I'm genuinely worried about Abby's state of mind."

Sam laughed louder at that, able to see through Dean's false sincerity. He shook his head, grinning a bit despite himself. "Yeah, right." There was laughter in his voice as he spoke.

Dean gave Sam a dirty look as Abby came back to the table. She smiled at them both as she set their glasses of soda on the table. She tapped the table with her index finger to get their attention. "If you boys need anything else," Abby said, "let me know." She was looking at Dean as she spoke; her voice had a breathy, flirty quality to it.

Sam rolled his eyes and shook his head again. The waitress was actually flirting back which Sam thought was pretty amazing. He didn't know how his brother did it nor did he really want to know actually. "You're a dog. You know that, Dean?" he said to his brother with a faint smile on his lips once Abby had walked away.

"I won't be doing anything with Abby that you don't want to do with Emerson," Dean said with a grin. He wiggled his eyebrows at Sam with a mischievous glint in his eyes.

Sam let out an almost sighing sounding laugh. "Whatever."

Dean nodded, giving Sam a knowing look. "Ah-ha but you're not denying it either," he quickly pointed out with a little grin, even pointing at Sam as he said it. "Dude, you just need to come out and admit it already. You're totally into her, Sam and she's totally into you. Even I can see that much. You'd have to be blind not to see that actually. So just ... kiss her or something already."

"So how did you want to approach the local police when we get to St. Louis?"

Dean lightly chuckled with a faint smile on his lips. "Yeah, sure. Quickly change the subject. God forbid that you might let yourself _think_ about her for a moment, right?" He shook his head at the look he got from Sam for that comment although they both knew it was true. He sighed and almost rolled his eyes a little himself. "We'll figure that out when we get there, work out our game plan on the way into town."

Sam nodded at that without saying anything. He had been thinking about that, trying to figure out how they were going to get the local police to hand over information on the missing persons cases. Especially when those 'missing persons' were, in fact, just some 10-year-old little girls. That would make it a much stickier situation. They could probably walk in playing the part of FBI agents, which some times worked in situations like this.

Sam let his mind start to work that out, pushing thoughts of Emerson to the back of his head. If he focused on the job, he could let himself forget about the fact that Dean actually had a point. Sam seemed to change the subject a lot when they got to talking about how he felt about Emerson. He knew he cared about her – a lot. But he didn't think it would be fair to her to lead her on when Sam didn't know how he felt about her in the first place.


	6. Chapter 6

**A/N:** Another longish update. Hope you like it! Reviews would be awesome. It feeds my muse! L

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Sam slowly walked down the street to Emerson's shop, leaving Dean at the diner. Sam had hardly touched his food at all. Thoughts of the job and of Emerson had kept his stomach in knots. All he think about was leaving the diner so when Dean told Sam to go ahead without him, saying that he'd take care of the check, Sam didn't argue with his brother.

He hoped that the walk would help him work off his nervous energy and clear his head. But the closer Sam got to the shop, the worse he seemed to feel. The butterflies that he felt in his stomach were intense. _I haven't felt this nervous in a long time_, he thought. The truth was not since talking to Jessica for the first time in college had Sam felt butterflies like this. He quickly pushed that thought out of his mind though as he stopped in front of the door and took a deep breath before putting his hand on the handle and pulling the door open.

Sam looked up when he heard the bell on the door jingle, softly smiling at that. He thought there was something endearing about that sound. It was somehow reminiscent of a more innocent time in his opinion. Although sometimes he wondered if there really was a 'more innocent time' in history. After all he'd seen and experienced, it was hard for Sam to always believe that there really was a time that could have ever been described as being 'innocent'. He softly smiled as he walked to the back of the store. Emerson was leafing through a glossy celebrity magazine and looked up to smile at Sam.

"We need to talk," Sam immediately said.

Emerson quickly closed the magazine she'd been looking at and stuck it into a cubby under the counter so she could give him her undivided attention. She slowly shook her head when she looked up at Sam again. "There's really nothing left to say, Sam," she told him in a matter-of-fact tone. "Unless you're here to talk about anything other than that job that you and Dean are going to be heading out on." She paused a moment to look at the door. She looked like she was searching for something. "Where _is _your brother anyway?"

Sam leaned against the counter using his arms to support his upper body weight. This ended up putting his face close to hers. Not uncomfortably close but close enough that he could feel her warm breath on his skin, which he liked so Sam didn't move. He even noticed that Emerson smelled like strawberries and vanilla. He watched her back away a bit, putting a little distance between them. He had a faint smile on his lips at that.

"He's still at the diner down the block," Sam said. "He's, uh ..." He paused for a moment, trying to figure out a polite way to word it. He chuckled a little when he realized there probably wasn't a 'polite' way to word it anyway and shook his head. "Well, he's hitting on some poor waitress there."

Emerson smiled brightly, nodding as she seemed to bite back a bit of a laugh. She had an 'I see' look on her face, pursing her lips for a moment. That seemed to sound like Dean. At least from what she could tell from the little time she had spent interacting with him. "He didn't want to be here to listen to us argue about this, huh?" Her tone was light and playful but there was some truth to her words.

Sam nodded, sighing slightly. He figured that meant that Emerson hadn't changed her mind yet, although he still held onto the hope that if he asked her enough that she'd just give in and say yes. "I suppose." He intently watched her for a long moment like he was trying to figure out what angle to use to get her to listen to his side of things. "Why won't you come with us?"

Emerson lightly laughed and shook her head, hopping off of the stool behind the counter. She had her back to Sam as she grabbed a stack of books that she had been meaning to put out all day but had managed to forget about until right now. Mostly she was looking for an excuse to do something so she wasn't sitting and staring at Sam. Emerson walked around the counter and headed toward the bookshelf directly behind him. "I just can't, okay?"

She looked up at him with her head cocked a little. "Would you please move?" When he didn't move after she asked him to, Emerson slipped past him anyway, her arm gently brushing against Sam's so she could get at the shelf. She was putting away the books as she spoke although she paused what she was doing long enough to look up at him for a moment. "You're not going to talk me into this, Sam, so you might as well let it go."

Sam smiled brightly at her and shook his head as he watched her every move. He thought that there was something cute about how flippant she was being with him. "I'm not giving up that easily," he told her.

Emerson put the last book on the shelf as Sam spoke. She folded her arms across her chest after and heavily sighed, turning to face him now. "Why not? Why is it so important that I go along?"

Sam looked at Emerson and kind of shrugged. "I don't know," he said. "I just want to know you're safe, I guess."

"I'm fine here, Sam," she said with a little sigh. "I promise. I'm a big girl. I can take care of myself. I don't need you hovering around to protect me."

Sam leaned against the shelf, turning just his head to look at Emerson. He sighed a little heavily and shook his head. "That's not what I'm trying to do."

Emerson gave Sam a surprised look and shook her head. She moved so she was standing in front of Sam, watching as he turned his head to follow her movement. "It's not? So what the hell do you call it then? What would you call what you're trying to do?" she said, sounding a little angry. "It sure sounds like you're trying to protect me to me."

Sam closed his eyes for a moment, shaking his head. He was finding it a little difficult to find the right words now for some reason. It seemed like whatever he said came out just a little bit wrong. "I just want to know that you're safe, Emerson," he finally said. "I'm not looking to protect you."

Emerson kind of laughed at that, folding her arms across her chest again. "There are some things that I need to do here first," she said. Her voice was softer now but with a kind of forcefulness. "I can't leave here until everyone in town is safe from that thing. That thing that tried to kill you, Sam. Or did you forget about that already? Did you forget that Dean had to rush you out of town in the hopes that you'd be okay?"

"Two days," Sam adamantly said. "That's all I'm asking for. Just two days."

"Sam, it'll take at least two days for me to drive there and back. No. Not even two days."

Sam softly sighed and shook his head. He watched Emerson for a long moment before cracking a smile and shrugging. "It couldn't hurt to try, right?" He had a sheepish look and reached out to brush some of Emerson's hair behind her ear for her. His fingertips slid over the curve of her ear and his eyes watched her every reaction, every move.

Emerson's eyes fluttered closed when Sam's hand moved. She sighed softly as she felt his fingertips brushing her ear as he tucked some of her hair behind it and she smiled a bit, her lips parted slightly, as she opened her eyes. "You should go," she softly said. Her voice was barely above a whisper.

Sam nodded but didn't move yet, his hand softly resting on her shoulder now. He watched Emerson before his hand moved back to his side. He kind of pursed his lips and then nodded again. "Okay," he softly said. "You're right."

It took a moment but Emerson softly laughed as she noticed Sam wasn't moving. "In order to go, you have to move, Sam," she said. Her hands moved to her hips and she gave him a 'go' kind of look. It was a gentle urging to get him to leave. "I promise to call once this is over, okay? No more excuses this time. When this is over, I'll call and maybe you can try talking me into coming along with you and Dean then." She shrugged at that, smiling at him. She had this sweet and almost flirtatious look on her face. Emerson's hands were back at her sides and she was gently biting her lower lip, kind of rocking on the balls of her feet as she stood there.

Sam nodded. "Yeah? I'd like that." His smile was bigger now. That flirty look wasn't lost on him after all. He saw it and it made him want to wrap Emerson up in his arms for a moment, an urge he fought as soon as it came to mind. Although Sam thought there was even something almost innocent in the way she was looking at him. "You better call too. No excuses." He gave her a kind of serious look but with a bit of playfulness in his eyes.

Emerson's smile couldn't have been brighter if she tried. She nodded and then moved to try to push Sam towards the door, giggling as she did it. Seeing that playful spark in Sam's eyes made her react in a playful manner. "Now go find your brother before he does something stupid, okay? And maybe you can call me when you get to St. Louis and maybe when you leave too. If you feel the need to hear my voice or something," she said with a shrug. Emerson hoped Sam would call but wasn't going to tell him that he needed to call. That seemed too possessive and that wasn't what she was going for right now.

Sam laughed at her and nodded. He walked backwards for awhile so he could watch her. "I'll do that," he said. "Just so you know we're safe and so you can know when we'll be on our way back through town. Maybe. Maybe we'll be on our way to something else so we won't be able to stop in but I'm hoping it might be a possibility."

"And I'm hoping you'll stay away until I call you again but if you happen to stop by, I won't stop you." She smiled brightly as she watched him walk and shook her head, standing in the aisle with her hands lightly resting on her hips.

Sam nodded and gave her a quick wave. "I'll see you later then, I guess," he said. "I'll stop by to say good bye before we leave, I think, but that's it. No trying to convince you to come along. I promise." He kind of crossed his heart and gave her a playful little grin.

Emerson saw that little grin on Sam's lips when he said he wouldn't try to convince her to come along and laughed, shaking her head at him. He was cute but he was so damn persistent and stubborn. She waved before he turned to leave the store and stood there for a long moment, staring at the door as it closed behind Sam. Emerson half wanted to run out after Sam and half wanted to kick herself for being stupid. She knew she could have gone with them. She knew it wouldn't hurt anything but didn't think she'd be able to leave him once she was out on the road with Sam and Dean. That was what kept her from saying yes. And even now, she was second guessing that decision.


	7. Chapter 7

**A/N:** Another day, another update. I'm hoping to finish writing my story before I finish putting up chapters. L Any reviews or constructive criticism would be appreciated. My muse is getting hungry and reviews really seem to fill her up and make her happy. L

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It was just a couple of minutes after 10 PM when the Impala pulled up in front of Emerson's store. The lights were still on inside, although the sign on the door was turned to 'closed' and the shades were drawn. Sam wondered if Emerson was inside helping some little kid from in town or if she was just working late. From what he recalled she seemed to do both often enough. He and Dean stepped out of the car at the same time, the doors closing in unison as they headed to the door. Sam got there first and gently pulled on it. It was locked so Dean decided that knocking wasn't an option.

"What the hell do you think you're doing?" Sam asked, his voice a harsh whisper.

Dean shot his brother a dirty look. He had been the one to insist that they head out of town while Sam had suggested that they get a room and leave in the morning. Sam had caught up with Dean while Dean was walking around town with Abby, the cute waitress from the diner, but Dean wouldn't tell his brother exactly what they had been talking about or why Dean was so ready to leave right now. And now Dean was picking the lock to the door only to have it pushed open from the inside, almost hitting him in the face. He grumbled something unintelligible as Sam took hold of the door.

Emerson was waiting on the other side of the door, smiling as she saw Sam take hold of it. She gave them both a smile, trying not to laugh at the look on Dean's face right now. She didn't say anything right away. She just gestured for them to follow her inside. It was almost as if she knew they'd be coming.

Sam shrugged and followed her. Dean, however, rolled his eyes and sighed. He closed the door behind them and lingered behind for a moment, not bothering to relock the door for her at the moment. He glanced around the little store, trying to figure out what seemed so different about it because there was definitely something that he couldn't put his finger on right now that seemed different about the place. Dean slowly made his way to the back of the store though, seeing Sam leaning against the counter while Emerson was sitting on it.

"I take it you guys are leaving tonight," Emerson finally said.

"Straight to the point," Dean said with a chuckle. "I should have expected it."

"Are you sure you won't come with us?"

Emerson looked at Sam with a soft smile, shaking her head. "You guys have a lot of work to do and you don't need me around to distract you," she said. She saw Sam open his mouth to speak and placed her fingers on his lips to quiet him. "I'd be a liability right now, Sam but maybe, sometime soon, I can come with you guys."

Sam had her wrist in his hand and slowly pulled her fingers away from his lips although he had liked the sensation. "Is that a promise?"

"Oh god, someone shoot me now," Dean said, rolling his eyes. He thought what was going on was almost sickly sweet and something Sam needed in his life, yes, but that didn't mean Dean had to act like he liked it. In fact, he'd have been happy to never have to witness this scene at all. "You two are sickly sweet. If I have to listen to this for any longer, I think I'd go crazy so I can't say I'm sad that you're not coming with us, sweetheart."

Emerson laughed a little at Dean, her attention taken away from Sam when she heard Dean's voice. She hopped off the counter and moved closer to him, doing her best to wrap an arm around his shoulders, squeezing him as tightly as she could manage. "Aww, I'll miss you too, Dean," she said with a bright smile. "Don't worry though because I'm sure we'll see each other again real soon and _then_ I can do everything in my power to hopefully be so sweet that you actually throw up." Emerson was speaking in this super cheerful tone just to play with Dean and then laughed, her arm falling away from his shoulders.

Dean rolled his eyes but couldn't fully hide his smile. Sam, however, was laughing softly at the two of them. Emerson moved so she was facing both boys. She was almost a whole step away from them and kind of in the middle. She sighed softly, her hands on her hips as she looked at them, and smiled a little, knowing that she'd miss them both terribly.

"So I'll give you a call when we get there," Sam finally said. "And if you need anything at all, just call. Okay?"

"Yeah, well, hopefully that won't be an actual issue though," she said with a shrug. Emerson bit her lip for a second and then cleared her throat before saying something. "Uh, I have something for you guys though. It's not much but it's something."

Dean seemed to perk up at that. He smiled a little with that kind of 'gimme' look on his face. It was like seeing a little kid on his birthday or something. He definitely liked the idea of getting some kind of gift before they left. "What is it?"

Emerson smiled as she went behind the counter, pulling out a paper bag from the grocery store. "It's just some sandwiches and stuff like that," she said with a shrug. She put the bag on the counter and pushed it towards Dean. "It's got to be better than fast food or the stuff you might pick up at a gas station or convenience store."

Dean took the bag once Emerson moved it towards him and smiled a little. He didn't say it but he had a 'thank you' look on his face. He peeked into it, kind of rummaging around in the bag to see what was all in there. Then Dean looked at Emerson almost expectantly. "Got a six pack in there for us?" he asked with a kind of boyish looking grin.

Sam shook his head at his brother before looking at Emerson. There was a clearly apologetic look on his face. "You have to forgive him," he said. "Thank you though. For that." He nodded at the bag that Dean had in his arm now.

Emerson laughed a little and nodded. "You're both very welcome," she said, looking from Sam to Dean. "And as for you." She pointed right at Dean then, smiling softly. "I think I slipped a couple of Heinekens in there for you boys. I would've put in a whole six pack but I wanted to make sure there would be room for food. Plus a few of bottles of water." She laughed and shrugged. "There's probably only enough for two lunches and two dinners in there but at least it's not diner food, fast food or something from a convenience store."

Dean looked into the bag again, as if to double check the contents, and then looked back at Emerson again. He was smiling at her though, clearly grateful for the gesture let alone for the food itself. "Yeah, thanks."

Emerson nodded, her gaze shifting from Dean to Sam. "So call me when you can, okay?" she said to Sam. "And if anything big happens around here, I'll call. I promise." She brushed her fingers against the back of Sam's hand, not realizing it right away. She quickly pulled her hand away once she realized what she'd just done.

Dean took that as a cue to leave. As he moved towards the door, he gave his brother a nudge. "I'll meet you outside, Sammy."

Both Emerson and Sam watched Dean walk out. She seemed a little surprised that Sam didn't walk out with Dean or something. In fact, she'd fully expected Sam to turn around and follow his brother out the door. She felt like they'd already said their goodbyes so there was no reason that Sam should have lingered behind. She smiled when they made eye contact after the door closed behind Dean. Sam was just about grinning.

"You should have left with your brother."

Sam shook his head, still grinning at Emerson. "I think he was trying to give us a moment."

"I've already said all I want to say, Sam."

Sam's head cocked a little to the side. There was a clearly curious look on his face, like he was almost unsure about something. He felt like there was a lot going unsaid between the two of them actually. "Have you?"

Emerson sighed and kind of waved off the question. She didn't feel like there was anything left to say even if Sam seemed to insist that there was. And if there was, she didn't feel like now was the time to stand around and talk about it. "Let me walk you out."


	8. Chapter 8

**A/N:** Short. I know. Sorry. :( But it's an update. And more will be coming. Promise!

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Dean was leaning against the Impala as he waited for his younger brother. He figured it would be at least a little while so he was going to enjoy the nice weather while he had a chance. He took a deep breath and sighed softly, looking up at the sky for a moment. Then Dean stuffed his hands firmly into the pockets of his jeans as he watched the door. When he saw it open, he straightened up a bit. He was actually surprised that Sam was on his way out so soon. It seemed like it had only been a few moments since he'd left them alone in there but he didn't say anything about it.

Dean smiled and shook his head a little when he saw Emerson walking Sam out though. He even tried to bite back a chuckle at the sight although he couldn't say that he was all that surprised to see Sam and Emerson walking out together. In fact, he was discreetly trying to check to see if they were holding hands. Dean was almost sad to see that they weren't. But he didn't say anything about that either.

"Hey. Ready to hit the road, geek boy?" Dean asked with a grin when Sam looked at him. He didn't wait for an answer, just moved around the front of his car. He kind of patted the hood of the Impala as he headed to the driver's side.

Emerson walked Sam all the way to the car and stood there as he and Dean got into it. She had her arms wrapped around herself for a moment when Sam moved to get into the car. Emerson smiled at him and gave Sam a little wave once he closed the door. Dean looked over at her and chuckled then, shaking his head. He was still waiting for a kiss or something because he thought they both looked like they wanted to kiss each other.

Sam reached for Emerson's hand, kind of pulling her closer to the car and grinned as she leaned so they could look at each other face to face. "I'll see you soon," he said, "okay?"

Emerson softly smiled and nodded, licking her lips softly. Her thumb was brushing against the side of Sam's hand and she was suddenly glad that he hadn't let go of her hand yet. She enjoyed the feeling of his hand holding onto hers like it was. "Okay," she finally said. Her voice was soft and almost cracked a little with that one word. She took a deep breath and looked like she was trying to make some kind of decision.

Sam softly smiled and finally let go of Emerson's hand. Dean took that as his cue and started up the car but before he could put it in drive, Emerson leaned into the opened window again, a little more this time. She cupped Sam's face with her hands and leaned in to kiss him. Dean cleared his throat with a look on his face that screamed 'awkward' but at the same time there was a smile there. He watched for a moment and then turned away when the kiss lingered for a bit more because watching much longer really would have been awkward. Both she and Sam seemed to sigh after and Emerson was just about grinning at him.

"I'll see you soon, Sam." Emerson stepped away from the car then, moving so she could see both Sam and Dean through the windshield. She was grinning and waved at them but her gaze seemed to naturally linger on Sam.

Sam had a kind of dumbfounded but happy look on his face. He waved back to her as Dean pulled away from the curb and started to drive away. He looked at his older brother after stealing a glance out the rearview mirror to see Emerson still watching them drive out of town. He liked that she was still watching them even after they were driving away. When Sam looked at Dean, he still had a shocked look on his face like he had no idea what had just happened to him.

Dean glanced over at Sam and chuckled at that look on his little brother's face. It was funny to see that kind of shocked but happy look there. "I guess she really will miss you, huh?"

Sam chuckled then and shook his head a little. "Yeah, hopefully that means she'll actually call like she said she would too." He was still a little stunned by the kiss. Not that it was some big, passionate kiss. Just the fact that it had happened at all spun Sam a little. He looked at the sign indicating that they were now leaving Mount Redding. It read: 'Thank you for visiting Mount Redding, Missouri. Come again.' He smiled at that and seemed to settle into his seat a little more, getting ready for the drive to St. Louis.


	9. Chapter 9

**A/N:** Hey, just wanted to say to all the people reading this, thanks so much for reading. Even without receiving reviews, I'm still grateful to know people are reading my story. I hope you're enjoying it as well. I also hope that you've already taken the time to read "Unfinished Business", the first story in this series as it seems like it'd be helpful in letting you all know who Emerson is exactly. Anyway, thanks again and enjoy the chapter/update!

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_St. Louis, Missouri_

_La Quinta Inn_

Sam and Dean had found the cheapest room they could once they rolled into town. They were staying 5 miles from the airport, which was all right with them. The amenities were actually more than they were used to at most of the places that they'd stayed before. The place had high speed internet access, free parking, free breakfast and even had an on-site guest laundry. It was close to a Denny's and McDonald's so basically the place was perfect for the boys. It wasn't even a seedy little hole in the wall place for once. It was a two-star motel, which was a major step up from some of the places that they'd stayed before. The room was even nice: double beds, a nice sized closet, cable TV, radio, a desk, coffee pot, alarm clock and a nice bathroom. All in all, the boys couldn't complain.

Dean was flipping through a St. Louis visitor's guide that had been sitting on the bed when they'd arrived in the room while Sam grabbed a quick shower. He already spotted at least three attractions that he wanted to hit if they had time after finishing this job. If they could wrap this up quickly, Dean was thinking he might even be nice enough to let Sam have the car so he could drive to Mount Redding while Dean stayed behind. How could he resist checking out a casino or two after all?

"Check this out, Sammy," Dean said, sounding rather excited as his younger brother came out of the bathroom wrapped in a towel. Actually, he sounded more like he and Sam where in St. Louis for a vacation than for a job. "There's a couple of casinos here and this diner on old Route 66. There's even a classic car museum." He was grinning like a little kid but the look on Sam's face made Dean instantly frown. "Well, there a bunch of museums and historical spots for you to poke around at too but ..."

Sam was getting dressed as Dean spoke and was now standing there in his jeans, shaking his head a little bit at his older brother. "Other than this room, Tower Grove Park and the public library, dude, you're not checking any of this out," he said, taking the guidebook away from his brother and setting it on the night stand between their beds. He ignored the sulking that Dean already seemed to be doing while he pulled on a clean t-shirt and then sat on his bed to put on his socks and shoes.

"All right, so where to first then?" Dean finally asked, resigning himself to the fact that his little brother was a stick in the mud and that they wouldn't be having any fun while in St. Louis. It made him start to seriously consider that idea of letting Sam take the Impala back to Mount Redding while Dean got to do the tourist thing here in St. Louis.

Sam sighed a little, his hands on his thighs, and shrugged. "We should probably check out the park first," he finally said after a bit of thought on the matter. "I figure we can find where the girls went missing, poke around a little and see if anyone who might be hanging around right now knows anything. There's guided tours and volunteers there all the time, I guess, so someone might have seen something."

"So are we going in full on FBI or what?"

Sam scratched his head for a moment as he thought about it and then shook his head. "Maybe we should try to keep it low key this time, Dean," he said. "Go in as reporters for some small town paper here checking out the disappearance of the girls, that kind of thing. Then if we have to, we can try the FBI thing."

Dean shrugged at that, figuring he'd let Sam take the lead on this. It was his brother's job. Sam, after all, had been the one to find it. Dean was along for the ride because it sounded interesting and worth checking out. "Any theories yet?"

Sam shook his head as he pushed up off of the bed and moved to grab his jacket off the back of the chair by the desk. "Demon? Vengeful spirit maybe? It's hard to say," he said with a shrug. He didn't have enough information to have a theory yet so it could be just about anything. It even could be some pedophile for all they knew. There was just something about how the girls were all the same age, all looked kind of similar that made Sam think it was something more than some sick human pervert though.

Dean decided that if Sam was putting on his shoes and grabbing his jacket, then they were about to head out. He sighed a little at that and kind of rolled his eyes. "So you want to go now?" he asked, looking like he was a bit too comfortable where he was to move. Actually it was more like Dean was lounging on the bed, sprawled out and totally relaxed. He wanted to get a hold of that visitor's guide again to see what other fun stuff he might get to do if he could only talk Sam into it.

"Uh, yeah, Dean," Sam said, sounding like he might be a little confused. He figured that the two of them would kind of jump right into it. They'd spent the night in the motel and now it was mid-afternoon, the perfect time to visit a park if they wanted to run into some parents. Sam kicked the bed a little and nodded towards the door. "Come on, Dean. We're not going to get anything done if we just sit around here. It's still early enough in the afternoon that there should be kids at the park with their families. Maybe we'll run into someone who remembers seeing the last girl that was taken. Or maybe one of the little girl's friends."

He knew he couldn't just sit there. He felt like he'd already done enough looking into and digging around. Sam wanted to find more information and if Dean wasn't going to go with him, that was fine. Sam would just leave his brother behind.

"You're such a party pooper, Sammy," Dean said as he sat up and stuck his feet into his boots. He tied them up as he looked at Sam. "We can't take 5 minutes to maybe think this through a little more or something? Grab something to eat?"

Sam adamantly shook his head and tossed Dean's jacket onto the bed next to his brother. "We'll get something to eat on the way back, all right?" he said, trying to find a nice compromise that would get Dean moving. "I want to see if there's anyone at the park that might have more for us to go on. Right now all we have is that there's a bunch of blonde, 10-year-old girls that have been kidnapped. If someone saw something, it might help us figure out where the girls are being kept and who or what is doing this."

Dean heavily sighed, shrugging on his jacket before standing up. He grabbed his keys from the desk and jingled them in front of Sam. "Fine but I'm driving," he said with this big, almost goofy grin on his face.


	10. Chapter 10

**A/N:** Seems appropriate to update this story on Mother's Day, doesn't it? L Anyway, I want to thank those that have reviewed. Profusely. Thank you SO MUCH! It's got me excited to keep writing. So THANK YOU!!

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_Tower Grove Park_

It had been a bit of a drive and Sam and Dean had rode in silence save for his tape of "...And Justice for All" by Metallica blaring out of the car stereo. They pulled up and parked near the North Gate on Magnolia Street. It took awhile and being pointed in the right direction by some of the volunteers at the park but soon Sam and Dean found the Pool Pavilion and near it the playground where the little girls all disappeared.

Dean had mentioned a few times about how 'impressive' the park was as they walked. Sam had been right, the place was huge and there were so many things to look at that it made Dean almost wish they could take a slower walk through the place again. And he wasn't normally one to enjoy a walk in the park so that said something about this place.

They decided to split up once they reached the playground. Sam figured they'd cover more ground that way. Sam went to talk to some of the parents while Dean poked around a bit. Now he was checking out the wading pool, which wasn't open at this time of the year but it looked like a spot that would be crawling with kids when it was. He could see from where he was standing that Sam was talking to some woman at the moment.

"So you said that the little girl was here with her mom and younger brother?" Sam said.

The woman, a brunette in her late 30s, nodded her head softly. Lucy kept shifting her focus from Sam to her son who was playing on the slide right now. "Yes, that's right," she said after a moment, sounding just a bit distracted. "Jackie would bring Taylor and Ellie here all the time. But I haven't seen her back with Taylor since Ellie went missing."

"And did you see anything suspicious that day? Like someone hanging around that looked out of place or someone that was paying Ellie a lot of attention that day?"

"I told the police all this already, Mr. Gillan," she said, shaking her head. Lucy frowned a little at Sam. She eyed him a little suspiciously until she decided that he was 'safe'. "I don't know how I can be of any help to your story." Her attention was caught by something her son was doing however. "Hold on for a moment." She took a few steps closer to the playground to yell to her son. "Nicky, you get down from there right now before you break your neck, young man!"

Sam turned a little to see a ten-year-old boy with wavy chestnut brown hair, hanging from a part of the construction that clearly wasn't meant to be used as monkey bars and smiled a little bit. Sam almost chuckled at it actually as he watched the boy and his mother for a moment. He could tell that it was an exaggeration on the mother's part but it didn't look like Nicky was in the safest of positions right now either. It took a moment before the little boy climbed back onto the equipment to safely play with his friends again and that was when Sam's attention shifted again.

"I'm sorry about that," Lucy said, sighing a little. Her son, it seemed, could be quite a handful. "Nicky thinks that he's Spiderman and sees fit to climb all over anything that he possibly can." She laughed a little and shook her head, looking like she didn't know why she'd just said that to a total stranger.

Sam shrugged. "It's all right," he said, nodding a little. "Boys will be boys, right?" He flashed her a quick, charming smile and shrugged again. "So anyway, did you see anyone suspicious hanging around the day Ellie disappeared?"

Lucy seemed to think about it and then slowly shook her head. "It was the usual mothers and nannies here with the kids," she said. "No one really stood out." She paused and seemed to recall something. Lucy pursed her lips for a moment, like she was debating telling Sam something. "There was this one woman who came around just before Nicky and I left who was looking for her little girl, asked me if I'd seen her daughter. I think she said her little girl's name was April. After she told me what her little girl looked like I had to tell her no. Other than Ellie and one other little girl, there weren't any other blonde girls around and none wearing a pink sweater and white pants. Then the woman moved on." Lucy shrugged. It was everything she remembered from that day. "I told the police about that little girl too and they said they'd look into it. Maybe you should talk to Jackie. I think the woman asked Jackie about that April girl too."

Sam nodded, making mental notes at the moment. "Is there a way that you know of that I could get a hold of Jackie or even this other woman you saw?"

"I don't know about the other woman. I hadn't seen her around here before then but I can give you Jackie's number. Ellie and Nicky played together a lot. They went to the same school, were in the same class," Lucy said, reaching for her purse and pulling out a little spiral notebook. She jotted down a phone number and then tore off the page and handed it to Sam. "Good luck with your story, Mr. Gillan. What I don't understand is why anyone from St. John would be interested in this story."

Sam stuffed the paper and his hands into the pockets of his jacket and smiled. "We're hoping there's a happy ending on this one," he said, nodding a little, "but missing girls is a big story anywhere. I just got asked to cover it. I didn't ask my editor why he wanted the story."

Lucy lightly laughed and nodded, accepting Sam's explanation at face value. He looked trustworthy to her. "Well good luck anyway."

Sam nodded and gave Lucy a little wave. He even glanced at Nicky who was climbing all over the equipment again which got his mother in another uproar. Sam walked over to Dean who was leaning against a fence with his hands stuffed into his jacket pockets. Dean shook his head as Sam got closer and Sam immediately was curious. Did that mean that Dean didn't find anything or that Sam wasn't going to like what Dean found?

"What did you get?" Dean asked.

"The name of the little girl that went missing and her mom's phone number," Sam said. His hands were still in his pocket and he could feel the paper in it. "There was apparently another mom going around asking about an April." He didn't remember any little girls named April among the missing girls from the park but he thought it was worth noting anyway.

Dean looked a little curious and nodded. "So are we going to still go with the reporter angle with the mom?" he asked. He thought they should go in as FBI when dealing with this little girl's mom but he didn't know if his brother had other ideas.

Sam nodded. "If this woman calls the girl's mom, then they're going to be expecting reporters," he said with a shrug. "We might as well stick with the cover for as long as we can. Anyway, the little girl was Ellie Mayer. Her mom, Jackie, would bring her kids here all the time. Since Ellie went missing, she hasn't been back."

"Well maybe this Jackie remembers something now that she didn't tell the cops at the time," Dean said with a shrug. "Maybe she even knows something about this April kid."

Sam nodded again. "We can go grab something to eat and I'll call Jackie, see if I can set something up for us to meet her, talk face to face," he said with a little shrug. He remembered Dean complaining about being hungry when they were at the motel so Sam figured they could grab something to eat and set up a meeting all at once. Make everyone happy. If they couldn't get any information from Jackie about April, then he'd head to the library if there was time or at least poke around on the computer.

Dean just kind of nodded, starting to walk down the path back towards the car. At least he thought he was headed down the right path to head back to where he'd parked. He looked at his little brother with this kind of confused, almost lost look on his face. "So how do we get back to the car again?" he asked.

Sam softly laughed, shaking his head at Dean. "This way, Dean," he said, leading them in a slightly different direction than the one Dean had started to take.

Dean furrowed his eyebrows and had a little frown on his lips. "I thought it was this way," he said, sticking his thumb in the direction he'd wanted to head.

Sam shook his head again but for a moment he did pause and looked around like he was trying to get his bearings. "No, it was this way," he said, sounding pretty sure of himself. "I remember."

Dean seemed to mutter something under his breath about how Sam always had to be right but started to follow his little brother. He was thinking though that this could be a problem. If they couldn't remember how to get back to the gate where they parked, how was a little kid supposed to find their way around this place? Dean didn't say anything though. He just stuffed his hands in his pockets and followed Sam, sulking a little at the fact that they weren't going the way Dean had said they should walk.


	11. Chapter 11

**A/N:** It's a mini update but it's something. We're almost to the halfway point too, I think. Anyway, enjoy the update!

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Sam had been right about how to find the car, which he didn't let Dean live down as they drove back to the motel. There was a lot of laughing and 'I told you so's coming from Sam as they drove. For his part, Dean sulked the whole time because of it. The only bright spot for Dean was the sound of Motorhead coming from the radio as they drove. He still had his music at least. He'd just been so sure that he knew where they'd parked.

Sam had been the one to point out the restaurant before they passed it. He wasn't hungry but he remembered that Dean said something about eating before they left. He figured after all the crap he gave his big brother the least he could do was suggest that they actually stop to eat. Dean jumped at the chance to stop for food so they pulled into the Denny's parking lot with Dean finally smiling about something.

They headed inside and ordered as soon as possible. They didn't talk too much at the time, mostly they worried about eating. Plus Sam was trying to give Dean some time to mellow out. About halfway through their meal, Sam gave the mother, Jackie, a call. He set up a meeting with her later that night.

Right now though, Sam and Dean were sitting in their motel room, talking 'strategy'.

Or at least Sam was trying to but his older brother wasn't paying any attention. Dean was flipping through that damn guidebook to St. Louis again, smiling and chuckling a little at some of the things to see and do in town. It wasn't until a pillow came flying at him that Dean looked up to realize that his little brother had been speaking to him. He gave Sam a little sheepish grin and shrugged. He had a look on his face like he was wondering what he had missed.

Sam rolled his eyes and again took the guidebook away from Dean, setting it on the nightstand between the two beds. He didn't know what about that guide had his brother's attention but he could tell that he'd have to work to keep Dean's attention with that guidebook around. "Dean, would you focus?" Sam said. "Please?"

Dean sighed a little and nodded, sitting up now with his legs over the side of the bed, his feet on the ground. "All right so we're supposed to be reporters for some little newspaper in St. John, right?" he asked, trying to get all the facts straight. "And this woman, Janet ..."

"It's Jackie," Sam quickly said.

Dean kind of nodded and fought the urge to roll his eyes at his know-it-all kid brother. He didn't like getting corrected but he knew Sam would do it anyway if Dean got the details wrong on this. Actually Sam seemed to do that often when Dean got some detail wrong or mixed up and it was becoming a pet peeve of his but he didn't say anything about it for the most part. "Right," he said with a little smile. "So this woman, Jackie, her little girl was taken how many days ago?"

"It's been almost a week and the police still don't have any leads."

"But there was some woman looking for her little girl, April, that day?"

Sam nodded a little. He was still trying to figure that one out because even with going back 6 or 8 months in his search, Sam hadn't been able to find out anything about this girl, April. It wasn't sitting right with him. "Yeah, but I couldn't find anything out about April," he said, shaking his head a little. "But maybe Jackie knows more about the girl." He shrugged a little at that.

"How long until we go meet with her?"

Sam checked his watch and then shrugged. He was wondering why Dean had even asked that. "Just a couple of hours," he said.

"Good, then I'm going to grab some sleep." Dean grabbed the pillow Sam had tossed at him and kind of snuggled in on the bed. He still had on his clothes and his shoes but he closed his eyes and tried to go to sleep.

Sam sighed and rolled his eyes before grabbing his laptop and stretching his legs out on the other bed. He shifted the pillows a little behind his back and then started to search for this April girl again. Sam had been looking everywhere, or so he thought, but came up empty so he was doing the only thing he could think to do. He was searching again. Sam tried this time to go back as far as a year but was still coming up empty. It was like April had never existed. So why was some woman searching for her in the park the same day that Ellie disappeared?


	12. Chapter 12

**A/N: **It's a small update, I know, but at least it's an update, right? :) Enjoy!

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A little girl sat huddled in a corner, almost curled up in the fetal position. She had her knees pulled up to her chest and was hugging them tightly, rocking slightly. She was softly whimpering and shivering. Wherever she was, it was cold and damp and she was hungry and dirty. Her hair was matted and barely recognizable as being blonde it was so dirty. She could hear humming in the distance. It sounded like a lullaby but the little girl didn't recognize the tune. She was trying to bite back the tears but they were stinging her eyes and a few rolled down her cheeks.

"Hello?" another little voice came. It was hoarse, soft but it was definitely the voice of another little girl. "Is someone else there?"

"I ... I'm Ellie."

There was rustling as someone moved. Another little blonde girl came into view in the dim light. She had a weak smile on her lips as she crawled over and sat down next to Ellie. "I thought I was alone in here," she said, her voice barely a whisper. "When did you get here?"

"I ... I'm not sure," Ellie said. She'd lost track of time at this point but she pushed a little button on her digital watch. It illuminated the face and she was able to see the day and time. It was Friday. "A week ago, I think."

The other little girl winced and sighed heavily. "Then I've been here 10 days, I think. Maybe eleven. I'm Erica. There were others. Some of them are dead now. Some of them she keeps somewhere else."

Ellie's eyes got wide at that. "Did she kill them?" Her eyes shifted to look down to where the humming was coming from at the other end of the room. Or were they in some kind of cave? Ellie wasn't really sure at this point.

Erica shook her head. "I don't think so," she said. "Sometimes she remembers to bring us food and water. Sometimes she forgets. I think the others died because she forgets."

Ellie knew enough to know that a person could starve to death but she didn't know how long that took. And the last thing that she wanted was to find out the hard way by having it happen to her. She started whimpering again and Erica wrapped an arm around Ellie. The girls huddled together in the corner, using each other for warmth. They both looked up when they heard the shuffling of feet coming towards them.

A tall woman with long blonde hair and clear blue eyes came closer, bringing a little kerosene lamp with her. She smiled at Ellie and Erica as she set down two tall glasses of water and some peanut butter sandwiches. She leaned in, still humming that lullaby and kissed each girl on the forehead before shuffling off.

Ellie shivered a little. "Her lips are cold," she softly said. Erica nodded as they both watched the woman leave. Ellie swallowed hard, looking down at the plate and then over at Erica. Erica seemed to be doing the same until she finally reached for one and took a big bite. Ellie waited while Erica chewed. When it seemed safe, Ellie started to eat too. She wondered if she'd see any other girls or if they'd never get to see another face but she was too hungry, too thirsty to ask Erica more about that just yet.


	13. Chapter 13

**A/N: **Finally an update! Thank you for your patience with me. Life's been a bit crazy here and there but a new chapter is up and I'm hoping to actually finish writing the whole story very soon. :)

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Sam and Dean seemed to close the doors to the Impala at the same time after they got out of the car. Dean stuffed his hands in the pockets of his jeans as they walked up to the ranch style home where Jackie Mayer and her family lived. Dean seemed a little indifferent about it as they walked up the stairs and towards the house. Sam looked at the place a little like it seemed too 'normal' to have had a family who went through something like this. The lawn was perfectly manicured. There were well-kept flowerbeds along the front of the house. It seemed like the perfect little house for a perfectly normal family to live in. Families like that didn't deserve to have anything like this happen to them, whatever 'this' turned out to be.

He rang the doorbell and kind of listened, watching Dean rock a little on the balls of his feet. Sam smiled at that before his attention shifted to the door. He was ready to ring the doorbell again, a whole minute after the last time he rang it, when the door slowly opened. A tired looking woman, in her early forties, stood there, looking at Sam and Dean rather blankly.

"Mrs. Mayer? Hi. I'm Ian Gillan and this is Steve Morse," Sam said, nodding towards Dean. "I called you earlier about a story I'm doing about what happened to your daughter. Would it be all right if we come in?"

Dean looked for a moment like he was a little surprised when Sam gave Jackie their aliases although Jackie didn't seem to notice it. He'd have to remember to ask Sam when he learned the names of members of Deep Purple. Right now though, he just gave the woman in the doorway a little smile and kind of nodded his head with whatever his brother said. He noticed the dark circles under the woman's dark brown eyes and her light brown hair seemed to be a mess. If Dean didn't know better, he would have said that the woman hadn't slept for a week.

Jackie took a moment and had to kind of shake off the cobwebs before she made any kind of response. She gave them a weak smile and opened the door wider. "Yes, please, come in," she said. She didn't know why any reporters would want to talk to her but if the story hit more newspapers, she hoped someone might be able to find her Ellie sooner.

Sam and Dean looked around a little as Jackie led them into the living room. The house was slightly a mess. There were some toy cars and fire trucks and such scattered around the floor. It looked like maybe she hadn't picked up or done too much cleaning since her daughter went missing. Which, Sam thought, seemed about right. There wasn't much that was more important than family. Housekeeping was definitely not one of those things.

Jackie seemed to notice the way the boys were looking around and sighed. "I'm so sorry for the mess, gentlemen," she said, picking up a couple of the cars at least to make sure no one stepped on them. "My son, Taylor, doesn't always remember to pick up after himself when he's done playing. He's out in the backyard now with his father." Her husband didn't like talking about this so when he heard that his wife had set up a meeting with some reporters, he took Taylor out to the backyard to play for a bit.

"It's all right," Sam said, in his most understanding voice with a little reassuring smile. It was that 'puppy dog' kind of look as Dean would have called it. All he knew was that he wanted to put Jackie at ease. It would make it easier to get information out of her. "If my child went missing, I think the last thing I'd be worried about was the state my house was in."

"Do you have any children Mr. Gillan?"

Sam shook his head, almost chuckling. "No, I don't."

Jackie sighed a little and sat down on a chair opposite the couch, gesturing for Sam and Dean to sit on the couch. She didn't seem to notice that neither Sam nor Dean had any tape recorders or notebooks with them. She wasn't really worried about those kinds of details at this point. She watched as they sat down though, almost looking a little wary of them. But that only lasted for a moment of two. She crossed her legs, seemingly getting more comfortable. Normally she would have been wearing something nicer but lately all Jackie had been wearing were pajama pants and t-shirts. She did have a robe on right now though and pulled it closer around herself as she watched Sam and Dean.

"Uh, Mrs. Mayer," Dean said after clearing his throat, "is there anything you can tell us that you remember from that day that maybe you didn't tell the police? Anything that they maybe dismissed when you told them?"

Jackie shook her head. "No," she said. "No, not really. They asked if there were any suspicious men around and I told them that I hadn't seen any. They asked how long I took my eyes off of Ellie and I told them it was only a moment. Maybe five minutes at the very most. I, uh, told them about this blonde woman who had been around, asking about her daughter just before Ellie disappeared." She seemed to shrug a little, unsure of what else she could say.

"About that woman, did you recognize her? Had you seen her before around the park?" Sam asked. His tone was probably a bit softer than Dean's and there was a kind of softness, an understanding look on his face as well that Dean didn't have although his older brother tried.

"Maybe, I'm not sure." Jackie seemed to be thinking it over, licking her lips softly as she tried to remember. "It was maybe a week before Ellie disappeared though. The same woman seemed to be frantic, asking around about her little girl, April. She didn't say anything to me but she talked to a few other mothers. Now I know how she must have felt. I just hope she found her little girl."

Dean looked a little confused and kind of shrugged when he caught his brother's eye but Sam didn't really seem all that confused or bothered by it. Sam just nodded his head with this solemn and reassuring look on his face. Jackie actually cracked a smile then and took a deep breath, her eyes closing for a moment.

"Thank you for your time, Mrs. Mayer," Sam said, his voice a little soft and reassuring now. He looked at Dean and kind of nodded his head before he stood up. "If we need anything else, we'll be in touch but I think we have everything we need for our story."

Jackie looked a little surprised. She had been expecting more questions but she stood up when she saw the boys stand up and nodded a little. "Oh, yes, okay," she said. "If I ... if I can think of anything else, I'll give you a call. Thank you for writing this story. Maybe it'll help the police in finding my Ellie."

Sam just smiled and nodded, moving to head towards the door. Dean nodded as well and then kind of motioned for Jackie to sit back down. "We'll see ourselves out," he said. "Thanks." It was probably the most understanding Dean had been since they'd gotten there. Mostly though he just wanted to get out of there.

Jackie sat down on the couch, a kind of distant look on her face again as Sam and Dean left. She didn't so much as move again once she sat down, just kind of stared off into the distance at nothing at all. Dean had glanced once at Jackie and that look gave him the chills. He seemed to hurry to close the door behind them once they were on the porch. He waited until they were back on the sidewalk again and heading to the car before he said anything.

"You thinkin' that this April girl has something to do with the whole thing?"

Sam shrugged a little and sighed. He stopped at the passenger door and ran his fingers through his hair for a moment. "I don't know," he said with another shrug. "Maybe. Maybe it's the little girl's spirit doing this or maybe it's just some sick pervert. I don't know."

"I'm starting to think that we'll need to find this April girl if we want to find these kids." Dean opened his door and got into the car, watching as Sam got in as well. Once his brother was in the car, he started it up and pulled out, headed back to the hotel.


	14. Chapter 14

**A/N**: It's a tiny update but it's something. Sorry about that but hopefully the next update will be bigger and better! Keep reading and definitely let me know if you're enjoying the story. I do squee every time someone sends me a review and my muse seems to like it too.

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"You said there were other girls too, right?" Ellie asked. She was whispering in case they could be heard right now. Her eyes even darted around a little like she was making sure that they were alone. The other little girl just nodded. "Do you know where they are, where she's keeping them? Have you seen them or something?"

Erica yawned. She was lying down now, using her own arm as a pillow almost. "She kept me in another room once," she said, her tone sleepy. Her eyes felt heavy. She was having trouble keeping them open actually. "We get moved around a lot."

Ellie laid down next to Erica, facing the other little girl. They were about the same height, with Ellie being an inch or so taller than Erica it seemed. Her eyes were wide opened as she looked at Erica now. "How many times has she moved you?" she asked. She was curious but she was also afraid to fall asleep so she was trying to keep Erica awake and talking right now.

Erica yawned again, her eyes only half opened now. "Mmm, talk tomorrow," she mumbled.

Ellie nudged Erica now and shook her head. "No, I can't sleep," she softly said. There was fear and desperation in her voice. She saw Erica's eyes slowly starting to close and she gave the other girl a little nudge. When she didn't get an immediate response, she shook Erica a little harder. "Come on, talk to me."

Erica 'mmm'ed in a kind of annoyed manner and rolled over so her back was to Ellie now. Ellie rolled onto her back and stared up at the ceiling. She sniffled softly and quickly wiped her eyes, realizing that she had started to cry. She fiercely tried to wipe away the tears before they fell but wasn't successful. She desperately wanted her mother right now. She wanted to be home in her big, comfy bed. Ellie didn't want to die, not here. She didn't want to end up like some of the other girls that had.

It seemed to be getting darker, like someone was turning down the lights. Ellie turned her head just enough to see the candles that were lighting the area were slowly going out. It was like someone was blowing each one out but Ellie didn't see anyone there. She scooted a little closer to Erica, whimpering softly. That scared her for some reason. Candles didn't just go out on their own one by one like that. Rolling over onto her side now, Ellie cuddled in close to the other girl, looking for some warmth and some kind of comfort right now.


	15. Chapter 15

**A/N:** Another update. Yay! Enjoy!

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Sam's legs were tangled in the sheet and threadbare blanket of his hotel room bed as he stared up at the ceiling right now. He'd actually been tossing and turning for quite some time now, not able to find a comfortable position despite the fact that the bed wasn't all that uncomfortable really. When they got back from talking to Jackie Mayer, Sam had gone in to full on research mode but it didn't seem to help their investigation at all. He still hadn't found anything about April. It was as if the girl had never existed. Sam had even tried widening the search to the whole county. He still hadn't turned up anything, even with going back a few years more with his search.

And now he had this sinking feeling in his stomach that he just couldn't place. He couldn't talk to his brother about it either so Sam was laying in bed, staring at a crack that he'd discovered in the ceiling only moments earlier. All he wanted, all he needed right now was some kind of distraction from thoughts of trying to save a bunch of little girls that they couldn't even find yet let alone getting rid of whatever it was that was taking them in the first place. He was trying to be as quiet as possible so he didn't wake up Dean.

For his part, Dean had fallen asleep almost as soon as he'd hit the bed, which was about 15 minutes or so after they'd gotten back to the hotel. Dean hadn't said much once they'd gotten back to their hotel room. He just stripped down to his boxer briefs, climbed into bed and was snoring lightly within minutes while Sam poked around on the computer. Now Sam turned his head to look at his older brother and softly sighed.

Off and on Sam was able to sleep through the night without having any nightmares. He found that talking to Dean about them wouldn't change anything so usually he didn't mention it even when he actually did have one. Sam's nightmares were usually visions, it seemed, and his last real nightmare had been about their old home in Lawrence, Kansas. Since then, he'd actually dreamt of Emerson once or twice. Those dreams always started out nicely and became more and more twisted until Sam woke up with a start.

That was something he hadn't actually told Dean about. But Sam didn't think those dreams were real. They weren't visions of what was going on with her. He thought they were coming from some twisted part of his own brain. Like it was some kind of 'warning system' telling him to back off before things got too serious. Of course Sam wasn't planning on getting any more involved with Emerson than he already was. Dean was the one pushing Sam to have sex with her. Sam had already been blind-sided by a kiss. He wasn't looking for more than that. That was what he kept telling himself anyway.

Of course, it didn't explain why he was laying in bed, staring up at the ceiling and thinking about Emerson. It seemed like for no reason at all an image of her crept into his head and he couldn't get rid of it no matter how hard he tried. Sam was getting more and more tempted the longer he lay there to grab his cell phone off the nightstand and give Emerson a call. That was, of course, why he hadn't moved yet, despite the way the sheet and thin blanket were tangled around his long legs. Sam thought if he untangled himself, then the temptation would be too great and he'd actually do it.

Then Dean started to mumble in his sleep. And Sam was pretty uncomfortable with what his big brother had started to say.

_Oh forget this_, Sam thought as he finally untangled himself and sat up in the bed. Sam tossed a glance at Dean as he started to pull on his jeans. He didn't bother putting on any socks though. He just pulled on some shoes and grabbed a long sleeved button down shirt that he'd discarded earlier and headed for the door. He had his wallet, cell phone and one of the key cards to the motel room. He could have left Dean a note but Sam didn't think his brother would be waking up any time soon.

Sam was pretty quiet as he snuck out, buttoning up his shirt as he walked to the door. He patted the pockets of his jeans a couple of times just to make sure he had everything before opening the door. He made sure he had the key to the room in hand as he closed the door behind himself now. Sam was able to actually slip out of the room before he had to hear too much about Dean's dream about some girl. Sam wasn't sure he recognized the name his brother kept mumbling under his breath. In fact, he didn't think he wanted to know what the girl's name was. Even as the door closed behind Sam, Dean rolled over and continued to sleep and dream.


	16. Chapter 16

**A/N: **Hey, big update here! Yay! :) Read and enjoy and feed my muse should the desire to leave me a review hit you. Thanks!

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Emerson 'mmm'ed softly but a bit angrily and rubbed her eyes with the heels of her hands as she rolled over in bed when she'd heard her cell phone ring. She'd had a hard time falling asleep tonight but once she'd gotten comfortable and relaxed, she had been sleeping nicely so the ringing phone was not a welcome sound right now. She even kind of growled at it before hitting a button and putting the phone to her ear. Emerson hadn't even checked to see who might be calling at this ungodly hour. At least she assumed it was an ungodly hour since she hadn't checked the time either.

"Mmm, 'lo," she sleepily said as she rubbed her eyes with one hand this time before yawning.

"Did I wake you up? I'm sorry about that."

Emerson sat up in bed now, her eyes snapping open at the sound of Sam's voice. It was enough to perk her up and rouse her completely out of that sleepy state she'd been in. "Is everything all right? I mean it's ..." She turned her clock to look at the red glowing numbers on the digital readout. "It's 2:02 in the morning, Sam."

"I couldn't sleep," Sam said after clearing his throat. He paused for a long moment, sighing a little. "This was a mistake."

Emerson could picture him getting ready to hang up now. His shoulders were probably slumped and he probably had this defeated little sad puppy dog look on his face. It looked cute when she thought about it. She smiled and shook her head. "No, Sam, it's okay," she said, her tone soft and reassuring. "I just figured that a call at this hour couldn't be a good one. What's up?"

There was another sigh and she figured his shoulders had slumped a little more from the weight of whatever was on his mind at the moment. She was guessing from some of the background noise that she could make out at the moment that Sam was outside. _Probably so he wouldn't disturb Dean_, she thought. Emerson couldn't imagine how Dean would have enjoyed listening to Sam carry on a whispered conversation right now because she was guessing that the older Winchester was sound asleep.

"This whole case we're working on isn't making any sense to me," Sam finally said. He sounded a little defeated. "I ... I guess I thought that if I could talk it out with someone, we could make sense of it together."

Emerson had her legs hanging over the side of the bed now and she smiled softly, nodding. "We can do that if you want, Sam," she said. "I've been told that I'm a good listener after all. So what are you having trouble with?"

Sam sat down on the nearest bench and sighed a little again, running his fingers through his hair. He shrugged and leaned against the back of the bench a bit more, his eyes closed at the moment. "It's everything really," he said with another shrug even if Emerson couldn't see him right now. "Mostly it's this little girl, April, that people keep mentioning. I've been searching everywhere I can think of and I haven't found anything about a girl with that name."

"Do you know what you're dealing with yet? I mean, maybe April is like some kind of demon's 'bait' to trap other girls or something," Emerson said, just thinking out loud. "Or she might not have ever been reported missing by her mom."

"Yeah, I was thinking that myself but ..." Sam sighed and shrugged. He wished he could have seen her face right now. He wanted to be talking to her face to face, not to over the phone. He could picture Emerson clearly at the moment. It wasn't like it had been that long since he'd seen her last but it wasn't the same. "But I don't know. I don't think it's a demon. It doesn't feel like a demon and there haven't been any traces of sulfur, no mentioning so strange smells like that. But then I don't know what it could be because nothing else makes sense."

"Hey, hey. Sam, take a deep breath and take a step back from this, okay? Don't let it get to you. You and Dean will figure it out but right now what you need to focus on are any leads that you have at the moment. See if there's some kind of trail that'll lead you to where the last girl that disappeared might have been taken. See if there are any bodies that turned up that you could look over. Talk to the police. Just don't let it get to you and don't you dare give up."

Sam smiled a little at the way Emerson jumped at reassuring him. There was something else in her voice, like she was trying to lend him a bit of her own determination at the moment. He wasn't sure if there had been something in the tone of his voice that made her do that but it had actually been nice. "Yeah, thanks," he softly said, nodding. "So how are you?"

Emerson softly laughed. "I'm good. I could be sleeping nicely right now but otherwise I'm good, Sam," she said, a bit of amusement in her voice. "Thanks for asking. You know, I kind of wish I could be there right now, to really help you through this."

Sam smiled, it was a little lopsided though and he softly chuckled. "I wish you could be here too, Emerson. You helped me anyway, I think," he said. "I think I was starting to get discouraged, like I wasn't sure this was even worth it."

Emerson lightly laughed. "I'm glad even long distance that I could help," she said. "But never second guess your instincts, Sam. They're sharper than you think."

Sam was still smiling a little, kind of a crooked smile. He could see her probably sitting up in her bed and smiling right now too. Hearing that laugh definitely gave Sam a little chill. It made him miss her more and he didn't even realize he was missing her this much to begin with. "Thanks," he said, his voice a little soft. "I'll let you get back to bed. I, uh, I should probably do the same so I'm sharp in the morning."

She laughed again, a bit softer this time. "Yeah, although I think that it's technically already morning, Sam. Sleep, however, is good. You might be able to look at things with a clearer mind later in the morning."

Sam chuckled and nodded. "I'll talk to you soon, right?" There was a definitely hopefulness in his voice when he asked that.

"Mmm-hmmm, of course," Emerson said. She sounded sleepier now that the conversation was winding down. "Bye, Sam."

"Yeah, bye." He waited a moment and then hung up. Sam wanted to be sure that Emerson hung up first. He yawned and stretched his legs out as he sat on the bench. It was quiet right now, peaceful and he could feel it almost lulling him to sleep already. It took a little effort to get up off of that bench but soon he was walking back to the hotel so he could go back to sleep. He hadn't wandered too far so it wasn't a long walk back.

Sam was quiet as he entered the room, finding Dean lying on his stomach, his face almost buried in the pillow. When he locked the door, Sam looked over his shoulder to see that his older brother hadn't even moved. He was tiptoeing his way over towards his bed, sitting down on the edge of it to pull of his shoes and then to take off his jeans. Sam let them fall to the floor but was still neater about it than Dean seemed to be. Sam's clothes were all kind of piled nicely on the floor by the foot of the bed. Then he slipped back into bed, covering himself up and sighing. He settled in and let his eyes close as he felt sleep starting to pull at him. It didn't take long for Sam to fall asleep.


	17. Chapter 17

**A/N:** Another day, another update. :) Hope you're enjoying the story. Feel free to review if you feel so inclined. I love reading reviews. It makes me squee and feeds my muse. :D The updates might slow down for a bit as I'm still finishing up the story and have yet to actually write the ending but I'm working on it. Promise!

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Erica woke up first, nudging Ellie when she realized there was someone else in their little room now. The new girl was kind of leaning against the wall and asleep. Still it frightened Erica a little to see a new face in the room.

"Ellie," she said, shaking Ellie a bit. "Ellie, get up."

Ellie 'mmm'ed, sounding annoyed and rubbed her eyes. Once she'd actually fallen asleep, she'd slept pretty soundly. She would have liked to sleep a little longer actually but Erica seemed pretty insistent so she rolled onto her back and stretched before opening her eyes fully. "What is it?" Ellie asked, frowning a little.

"There's someone else here," Erica said in a harsh whisper.

Ellie sat up quickly then and looked to see the other girl in the corner. She looked a little dirty and a bit worse for wear. Ellie wondered if she looked like that too. She kind of crawled over and poked the girl's leg. The girl felt warm, sort of, and looked like she was breathing so Ellie knew the girl wasn't dead or anything. She looked at Erica though and shrugged before kind of shaking the girl's shoulder.

The girl's eyes seemed to snap open at that and she looked a little wild-eyed and scared. "Get away from me," she said, nearly shouting. "You're not real."

Ellie scooted back almost immediately and looked a little scared herself. "We **are** real. I'm Ellie," she said. "And this is Erica. Who are you? When did you get here?"

The girl slowly seemed to stretch out her legs. She seemed to be eying them up as she tried to decide if they were real or not. She had hoped that this was all a dream but she was starting to seriously doubt that it was. "I'm Nina," she said with a little nod. "I ... I think I just got here but I don't know anymore."

Ellie kind of smiled. She knew what it was like to lose track of time here. If it wasn't for her watch, she wouldn't have known that it had been about 8 days or so since she'd shown up here. Maybe it was more, maybe less. Even she wasn't totally sure about that anymore. "Do you remember what happened to you?"

Nina shook her head a little and then shrugged. "I was at the park, playing on the slide and this lady came over," she said. "She called me April. I told her my name was Nina but I don't know if she heard me. Next thing I remember, I'm here. You guys were sleeping but I didn't think you were real."

"What time is it?" Erica asked. Sometimes she slept for nearly 12 hours and didn't realize it so she was wondering how late it was now.

Ellie pushed the little button on her watch to make the face softly glow and checked the time. "Uh, it's like 12:12," she finally said. "Wow, I slept for a long time, huh?" She almost laughed at that but it was really soft. There wasn't any food or anything waiting for them so she figured that the woman had forgotten, so far, to feed them.

"When did you go to the park?"

Nina shrugged. "We went first thing in the morning, I think," she said with a little smile. "It was like 9 in the morning. I just fell asleep a little bit ago so I haven't been here long." Now that she heard the time, she figured it had only been like 2 hours and she hadn't seen the woman around since she got here.

"Think she'll feed us today?" Ellie asked, looking at Erica.

Erica shrugged and moved a little closer to Nina. The room, if it could be called that, was getting a little crowded. She still had water in one of the glasses so she took a drink and then handed it to Nina. Ellie looked at the other glass, which had enough water in it for her, it seemed and took a little sip. She didn't even bother to ask about a bathroom earlier and now that she had to go, she was wondering about that.

"Where do we ..." Ellie couldn't really finish asking the question. She just made a little face, scrunching up her nose a bit.

Erica shrugged and kind of looked around. It didn't seem like there was a place for that. She scooted a bit and kind of peeked a little outside their room. There were bars in the way so it was more like a jail cell than a room. "Probably in here, I guess."

Ellie made another face at that, her nose scrunching up even more at the thought. She really had to go though so she figured that she might end up picking a corner or something but she was going to try to hold it. "I really don't want to do that," she said, shaking her head.

Erica just shrugged. "I don't know. The one room I was in had a little hole but that was it. Maybe there's one in the corner here or something," she said. She hadn't been in this room long so she didn't know if they were all the same or not.

Nina made a face now too. She didn't like the sound of this. No bathroom and so far no food. "Does she bring food often? I'm kind of hungry." She could feel her stomach rumbling and water wasn't helping.

Erica shook her head. "Only when she remembers," she said with a shrug. "The last room I was in, the girl died because the woman didn't bring us food for quite awhile. I got smart about it and started saving some so I had a little to eat like every day but the other girl wound up starving to death, I guess." She seemed pretty flippant about it. It wasn't like she came here and was flippant about death but after spending three days in a room with a dead girl, Erica was kind of shocked into not caring.

Ellie and Nina both looked pretty shocked by Erica's attitude about that. Neither of them had ever seen a dead body before and neither of them wanted to. Ellie was actually kind of afraid that they might die so the last thing she wanted was to be in a room for even a day with someone who'd just died. It scared her. Nina seemed to be shivering a little at the idea. She just now realized that she might not ever see her family again and it scared her more than she could say. Ellie moved closer to Nina and so did Erica. They all kind of huddled together against the one wall, trying to comfort each other and keep each other warm.


	18. Chapter 18

**A/N:** Not a big update but it's something. Hope you all enjoy. :)

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Dean had rolled out of bed at some time around 10 that morning to find that Sam had already gotten up, showered and was dressed. He grumbled something unintelligible as he passed his brother on his way to the bathroom. He wasn't exactly a morning person so it was annoying to see his little brother looking so awake and already hard at work. Sam glanced up as Dean headed to the bathroom before his attention was back on his laptop. He was sitting on his bed, computer on his lap and doing another search for April. It was statewide but he only went back 5 years. There were quite a few missing kids that he had to sift through though so by the time Dean had showered and dressed, Sam felt like he had barely scratched the surface.

After sitting around for awhile, Dean started to get restless and Sam was starting to feel like his current search was hopeless so he knew he needed a break. It didn't take much convincing on Sam's part to get Dean to go somewhere. In fact, Dean seemed rather pleased to get out of that motel room and do something. He felt like they were just sitting around, with their thumbs up their asses, not doing anything useful in solving this case.

They ended up getting in the car to grab a breakfast of coffee and donuts from a nearby gas station. It was better than sitting in the motel anyway but it wasn't exactly what Sam had been thinking of when he mentioned getting out to grab breakfast to his brother. Dean had just started to complain about the lack of leads as they sat in the parked car. He had the police scanner on though – just in case – and they caught something about another missing girl taken from Tower Grove Park. Dean was actually shocked by that and the brothers exchanged a little look even as he started up the Impala.

Sam didn't like that another girl had been taken but part of him was still excited to have a fresh lead. He thought it might actually help this time. Because this time they could probably talk to more people on the scene and hopefully get to talk to the parent or guardian of the little girl that was taken while it was all still fresh on their mind. Maybe he could even get a better description of the woman that had been seen wandering around at the park when other girls had disappeared. It was both sad and exciting and those mixed emotions seemed to actually have him a little hyped up at the moment.

Looking over Sam could see that the same was going on with Dean. Others might not have seen it but he could see how it actually bothered his brother that these little girls kept disappearing while local police could do nothing about it. And more than that, Sam could see Dean's excitement to have a fresh lead right now.


	19. Chapter 19

**A/N:** Another update, which are about to become scarce because I'm catching up with what I have written so far and as I'm not even done with this story yet, it might be a little while before there's another update around here. Enjoy what I have to give however and feel free to drop me a review if you so desire. :)

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When they pulled up at the park, there were already three squad cars on the scene. This time Dean made sure to park a bit closer to the playground area which wasn't hard to find with the police cars sitting there. They had to park a bit farther back but at least they didn't have to make a long trek from the car to the playground this time. And it would mean that this time Dean couldn't get himself turned around and manage to misplace the car. The last thing he wanted to listen to was Sam giving her grief for something like that. It'd been difficult enough to put up with the first time after all.

As they walked up to the playground now, they decided to split up in order to cover more ground, talk to more people. Dean spotted a young looking female officer and decided to go up and have a chat with her first. Sam immediately realized that was mostly because Dean was going to try hitting on the poor cop but figured he'd let Dean do it in case it garnered any interesting leads. After all one could never tell what Dean might manage to sweet talk out of an attractive woman. Sam, however, tried talking to a couple of the other police officers there but didn't seem to get anywhere with them. Most told him 'no comment' and went back to work which he figured was to be expected. The disappearances seemed to be escalating. It was the reason he and Dean were trying as hard as possible to find out what was going on. Sam didn't want another little girl to go missing if he could help it so he let the police do their work, knowing he and Dean would get the job done better but that no one would ever believe it or them anyway. He shook his head as he glanced over to see his older brother still flirting with the female cop however. Walking over to the car to wait for Dean, Sam smiled to himself.

When Dean finally headed over about five minutes after Sam, a little slip of paper in his hand, Sam was leaning against the Impala and shaking his head again. It was in one of those amused manners, like he knew what Dean was about to say and couldn't quite believe it. Sometimes his older brother amused him to no end, especially when Dean was kind of 'on the prowl'. Dean just chuckled a little at the look on Sam's face and shrugged as he got closer.

"So what did you find out?" Sam asked with a little smile once he didn't have to shout to talk to his brother. He figured the paper in Dean's hand was the cop's phone number but he wondered if Dean had found anything else out. Hopefully something more useful.

Dean smiled brightly, one of those triumphant kinds of grins and held out the piece of paper for Sam to check out. "That's the name and phone number of one of St. Louis's finest," he said with a little nod. Then he turned the slip of paper over because that was the side he had wanted to show to Sam. "And on the back I got the name and number for an actual eye witness this time. Some nanny actually swore she saw a woman snatch this little girl and then vanish."

"So you think it might be a lamia or lilim or are we dealing with some kind of avenging spirit?" Sam asked. It was more like he was wondering out loud, working out his own thoughts and hoping it would maybe jog Dean's memory too.

"You mean like Lilith? Yeah, could be," Dean said with a little shrug. He knew a little about that lore but not enough to be sure at this point what they were dealing with. It still felt like it could be almost anything. Including something that wasn't even supernatural to begin with. "I mean, the lamia would steal kids, right? And that's what this thing is doing so ..." He let his statement hang there and shrugged.

"Yeah, well, let's go talk to this nanny," Sam said, shifting his weight so he was standing upright now. He was ready to move now that they had what felt like their first solid lead since jumping on this job. He hated that it came at the expense of another little girl being taken but it felt good to have a solid lead this time. "Maybe she'll have some kind of clue for us, something more to go on." He was pretty sure now that this wasn't a case that the cops were going to be able to solve. It was definitely a job for him and Dean but Sam was starting to wonder how much time the kids that were already taken might have left.


	20. Chapter 20

**A/N:** Look it's an update! I don't know when the next one will be. I have to shake my writer's block before I can post any more chapters so hopefully I'll shake it soon and you guys will get another update soon as well. For now, enjoy the new chapter. :)

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Once they'd gotten into the car and started to drive away from the park, Sam pulled out his cell phone and gave the nanny a call. The young woman, Maggie Ferguson, sounded a little shaky even over the phone but agreed to meet the boys at Coffee on The Loop on Delmar to talk. Sam made sure that Maggie would be able to spot them when they showed up and when they walked inside about twenty minutes later, Maggie seemed to immediately recognize them and actually stood up as soon as she saw them.

Once sitting down again, she had her hands around a cup of warm coffee and didn't look at the boys once when they started talking to her. Sam and Dean would ask her questions and she'd start to answer them only to cut herself off because she thought she was going crazy and didn't see how her answers made any sense even to herself. Maggie was pretty shaken up by the whole ordeal and didn't feel sure that what she saw had really happened anymore. Sam and Dean both tried to reassure her that she wasn't crazy and that they'd believe her no matter what she said but it took a little while before Maggie trusted them.

"I haven't worked for the Malone family for very long but it's become a pretty regular thing for me to take their two kids to Tower Grove Park to play," she said. She spoke slowly and still didn't look up but Maggie was at least getting the story out after a lot of starts and stops when she'd first tried to explain what she'd seen. Maggie was at least warming up to the boys so she didn't feel like a complete idiot right now. "Louisa was playing on the swings and Howard was over on the slide. There was this little blonde girl playing by Howard. I saw this woman walk over to her. I'd never seen the woman before but I didn't think anything of it. I've noticed that some of the families go through a lot of nannies so it's kind of normal actually to spot unfamiliar faces now and then."

She shrugged a little at that and kind of glanced at Sam and Dean for a moment before taking a sip of her coffee. Since Maggie wasn't getting the feeling that they thought she was nuts, she figured she could continue. "It wasn't like the girl seemed scared or anything like that. It all seemed like a pretty normal scene at the park. Then I saw the woman kind of grab hold of the little girl's wrist. Now I only turned my head away for a second to see what Louisa was doing but when I looked back, the woman and the girl were gone. Just like that." She snapped her fingers, looking up at Sam and Dean now. She looked a bit scared as she recalled that moment. "It sounds crazy but it really did happen in like a split second."

Sam smiled softly and nodded. It wasn't the first time they'd heard someone second guess seeing something like that so he did his best to reassure Maggie that she was in fact perfectly sane and she did see exactly what she thought she saw. "Did you hear the woman say anything to the little girl? Did she call the girl by a name or anything like that?"

Maggie shook her head, moving to tuck some of her dark brown hair behind her left ear before adjusting her glasses a little on the bridge of her nose. Her gaze shifted back to her coffee for a moment before she looked at the boys again. "No, I wasn't close enough to hear anything that might have been said," she said, shaking her head a bit. "I just saw the woman grab the girl's wrist and then disappear. I mean, I didn't even really see her walk over by the slide in the first place. It was like she was just there and then gone, you know?" Maggie's eyes seemed to dart from Sam to Dean and she looked scared, like she was waiting for them to tell her that she was crazy.

"So you're saying you saw the woman suddenly appear, walk towards the little girl and then they both disappeared?" Dean asked, trying to get the facts straight since Maggie seemed so unsure of herself right now. He sounded a little rougher around the edges when he spoke than Sam did but he tried to not make it sound like he didn't believe Maggie.

"Yeah, I don't remember seeing the woman until she just kind of appeared near the slide and walked over to the little girl," Maggie said with a nervous shrug. She took another sip of her coffee and then set the cup back down, still cradling it with both hands. It was like the warmth was somehow reassuring.

"Now what about Howard? Do you think he saw anything?"

Maggie bit her lip as she looked at Sam now. She visibly stiffened at that question and took a sharp deep breath, swallowing a little hard before she even answered the question. "He didn't want to talk to me about it," Maggie said, shaking her head. "But I think that he might have seen something because he was really scared. If it hadn't been for the police stopping everyone from leaving until they'd been questioned, I would have gotten out of there sooner. He was shaking so bad. I hated that there wasn't anything I could do about it. I made sure we talked to an officer as soon as possible so we could just get out of there and so they could get home again."

"Is there any way that we could talk to him?" Dean asked, giving Maggie his best charming little smile. It usually seemed to work with women so he was hoping that it might get Maggie to let her guard down a little with him now.

"Uh, yeah, they should all be at home by now and his parents might let you guys talk to him." She seemed unsure about telling them where the Malone family lived but Maggie didn't think there was any harm in two reporters talking to the boy either so she reluctantly jotted down the address on a napkin and slid it over to Dean. "Just don't tell them that I sent you, okay? I kind of need this job to help pay for college."

Sam smiled softly and nodded. "Of course," he said, his tone was gentle and reassuring. "Thank you for all your help, Maggie."


	21. Chapter 21

**A/N:** Yay! An update! And a long one at that. Enjoy and hopefully there will be another update soon. I don't like making everyone wait forever for updates but I'm so caught up now with finishing the story that I don't know when I'll get a chance to update again so for now, there's this and hopefully I'll get more up soon!

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The house that Sam and Dean drove up to was huge so it didn't surprise them much when a maid answered the door. She was an older woman, probably in her early 50s, with dark brown hair that was peppered with a bit of gray near her temples. She walked them into the formal sitting room but all the while she fixed them with this look that made both boys very uneasy even though she had given them something of a smile initially. It was like she was assessing them and more than that it was one of those stern, 'don't mess with me' kinds of looks. They both seemed to breathe a bit easier when she left the room to go get Mrs. Malone.

They sat on opposite ends of a red sofa that was anything but comfortable. It was one of those pieces of furniture that people seemed to buy for its look but not for comfort. Sam shifted a little uneasily as they waited and Dean kept looking around the room which looked to him like it was something right out of an old Victorian house. It was meticulously kept and every piece in the room looked like it costed more money than the boys had probably ever seen in their lives so far.

Mrs. Malone walked into the room with an air of confidence that would have knocked an unassuming person back. Dean smiled one of those goofy kinds of grins and Sam had to elbow him in the ribs. She was a tall, thin and attractive Hispanic woman with long dark brown hair and big brown eyes. Dean looked more like he was interested in getting the woman into bed with him than asking her any questions so Sam figured he'd have to step in before his older brother drooled all over himself.

"Mrs. Malone, I'm Ian Gillan and this is Steve Morse," Sam said, sticking with the cover names he'd given before. He didn't think that this woman ever actually talked to any of the mothers that took their kids to Tower Grove Park but he figured that it was better to be safe than sorry. She might have someone else check up on them at some point so it was best to stick with one cover so nothing wound up getting confused later on. "We're in town working on a story on the missing girls, the ones that were taken from Tower Grove Park, and we heard that perhaps your children might have seen something. We were wondering if you'd mind if we talked to them a bit. We just have a few questions."

"I'm sorry but Howard and Louisa are far too shaken up to speak to any reporters, Mr. Gillan," Mrs. Malone said in a dry, matter-of-fact kind of tone. She had one hand on her hip and looked like she wanted them out of her house as quickly as possible. She even looked them over with an icy, 'don't mess with me' kind of look and pursed her lips a bit.

Sam noticed Dean almost shudder at that and that goofy grin was quickly replaced with a look that pretty much said 'let's go Sam' but Sam wasn't going to let the woman shake them that easily. He was guessing that part of this was a test to see if Sam and Dean would stick to their story, like she was trying to gauge whether or not they were being truthful. He wasn't going to push her, obviously, but he didn't see anything wrong with trying to nudge Mrs. Malone a bit to see if she wouldn't let them at least talk to one of the kids.

"I understand your apprehension, ma'am, but I promise you that anything your children tell us will be kept confidential," Sam said with a little nod. His tone was soft and almost soothing and he had a soft smile on his lips now. "We won't even mention their names in the article. We were just hoping to get some eye witness information. Up until now no one has actually come forward to say that they've actually seen anything and the police aren't exactly talking."

Mrs. Malone made a little 'hmph' sound and shook her head a bit, folding her arms across her chest now as well. "Neither of them seem to want to talk about what they saw," she said. Her tone was less harsh than it had been a moment ago but she still seemed unsure about trusting the boys enough to talk to her children. "And I don't know what to do."

"Maybe we can help with that," Dean chimed in with a little shrug, looking a little confident in that statement. He was good with kids so he figured that they could give it a try.

Mrs. Malone seemed to eye both Sam and Dean for a brief moment, trying to decide if she should trust them. She knew her children were shaken up quite a bit. Neither of them would speak to her about what had happened at the park and she wasn't sure these two would have any more luck than she'd had. Still the two of them seemed rather harmless, for lack of a better word, and while she didn't trust them completely, she didn't think it would necessarily harm her children to talk to these guys. Finally she nodded and turned to head out of the room, giving them a little wave to get them to follow her.

Sam got up slowly but Dean seemed to hop right up as soon as Mrs. Malone gave that little wave. They exchanged a little look and both of them shrugged. Sam and Dean both seemed cautious as they walked through the hall and into the kitchen. Dean was looking around a lot, eyes wide with curiosity and awe at what he was taking in. The place was huge and full of things that he had only seen on TV or in magazines. He was afraid that he might break something if he looked at it the wrong way.

Sam, however, seemed to look straight ahead, just following Mrs. Malone. He did look around a little bit as they moved from one room into the next but he didn't think about what he was seeing too much. Checking out this woman's house was the last thing on his mind but he did figure it would be good to know how to get back to the front door if it came down to them having to make a quick break for it or something.

They were led through the kitchen to a door that led downstairs into the lower level of the house. From there Mrs. Malone took them to a playroom set up in the finished basement. She cautiously opened the door where her children were quietly playing. The TV was on and some cartoon was playing but neither of the children were watching it. Louisa, the little girl, was sitting on the floor brushing out the hair of one of her Barbie dolls. Howard was sitting on the couch building something on the table in front of him with his Legos.

"Howard, Louisa, I'd like you to meet some people," Mrs. Malone said. Only Louisa looked over however when her mother spoke. "This is Steve and Ian and they'd like to talk to you about what happened at the park. Now you don't have to say anything to them but they think it might help find the little girl that went missing."

Dean seemed to look at Mrs. Malone like 'may I?' before he even walked into the room. When he got a nod in response, he moved over to the couch and sat down next to Howard who was still working away on building what appeared to be a tall tower. "Look, I know what we're asking of you guys is kind of tough," he said with a little nod, looking from the little boy to the little girl. "But we could really use your help."

"The woman that took the little girl, I saw her," Louisa softly said. She was looking from Sam to Dean but then seemed to stare off into the distance. "Not for long or anything but I remember she had blond hair. It was really, really long, like to her waist or something. Her clothes were kind of funny too. Like some of the stuff my mommy lets me play with for dress up."

Mrs. Malone looked at Sam who was still hanging out near the doorway although even he had taken a step into the playroom now. "I gave Louisa some of my shirts and dresses from the 80s to play with," she said, throwing that out there in case it might be helpful. She shrugged a little with a hopeful smile. She wasn't sure that anything Louisa was saying would help or anything that she even said would help but if it could save another little girl, Mrs. Malone wanted to help as much as she could without it being too difficult on her own children to talk about it.

"What about you, Howard? Did you see anything?" Dean asked, looking right at the boy now. Howard nodded a little but didn't say anything. He just kept working on his building, staring intently at it.

"He was right there when it happened," Louisa chimed in, nodding. She seemed to be the slightly more dominant sibling or at least she was far chattier than her brother. "He saw the woman take the little girl."

"Did you?" This time Sam was the one who asked Howard a question.

Howard again nodded at what he was being asked without looking up. He seemed very intent on finishing whatever it was that he was doing. Or maybe it was just a nice distraction from having to think too much about what he had seen. Dean wasn't sure but he looked over at Sam with a little shrug. Sam just nodded back.

"Can you tell us what you saw?" Dean asked. "I know that it might be scary to remember it but it would help us a lot to know what it was."

"She kind of blinked," Howard said softly, still staring at the Legos. Only now he wasn't picking them up and putting them on the structure he was building. This time he was staring at the piece he had in his hands.

"Blinked? You mean, she was there and then she was gone?"

Howard nodded a bit. "Yes. And she called the little girl April. That wasn't the girl's name though. I was talking to her while we were going onto the slide. Her name was Nina. Nina was really scared," he softly said, finally putting the Lego on the table but still didn't make eye contact with anyone. "The woman grabbed her and pulled her away, towards the swimming pool, before Nina could scream for help or anything. Then they were gone." He shrugged and looked up at Dean now. "Am I going to be in trouble for not helping Nina?"

"No, Howard. It wasn't your fault that Nina got taken," Dean said, nodding a bit. He put his hand on Howard's shoulder and gave it a little squeeze, smiling. "But what you just told us, I think it'll help us out a lot."

"Yeah?" Howard looked a little uncertain but a little relieved at the same time. He had been worried that someone would be mad at him for not telling the police everything or for not trying to help Nina when the woman was taking her away.

"Yeah, thank you," Sam said, nodding and smiling now too. "Thank you to you too, Louisa. And thank you for letting us talk to your children, Mrs. Malone." He looked at each person when he spoke to them and each smiled and nodded at Sam.

Dean stood up, giving Howard's shoulder another squeeze. "Nice tower by the way."

Howard smiled a little more and regarded his own handiwork, shrugging. "It's all right, I guess."

Dean nodded and headed for the door, giving Sam a little nod of his head. "We'll see ourselves out if that's all right," he said as he reached Mrs. Malone. She nodded at that and moved into the playroom to sit on the couch now with her son. Once they were upstairs and in the kitchen again, Dean finally spoke to his brother. "So what do you think about what the kids said?"

"Definitely sounds like we're dealing with a spirit now," Sam said with a little shrug. "Someone who probably died in the 80s who's connected to this April girl. It narrows things down a bit more anyway."

"And we already know how to kill it," Dean pointed out with a nod as they reached the front door.

"Yeah, once we find out who it was and where it's taking the girls."

Dean gave Sam this little 'come on' kind of look. "That should be a piece of cake for you, college boy," he said, slapping Sam on the back, chuckling. This was the reason Dean hated doing research though. It was tedious work and something he didn't always seem to have the patience for. "Let's go, Sammy. You've got some work to do."

"Me? What about you?" Sam said with a little chuckle as he headed through the door that Dean had opened for them. He was watching his brother hurry to the Impala now with a kind of irritated look on his face.

"I'm going to make sure we have everything we need to get rid of this thing once and for all," Dean said with a charming little grin that probably would have worked on anyone but Sam.

Sam rolled his eyes, making a little 'ha' sound, an unamused kind of laugh, and shaking his head. "Yeah, well, first I have to find it, I guess," he said as he hurried to catch up with Dean now.

Dean was already opening his car door as Sam neared the Impala. "Cause you're good at that kind of thing," he said, getting in and closing the door behind him.

"Or because you're too lazy to help me out with that," Sam grumbled as he opened the passenger side door, climbing in as Dean started the car.

Dean gave Sam a dirty look and shook his head. He didn't argue as he pulled out and headed back to the motel now. They had a fresh lead and probably the most information they'd had in a bit. He was feeling good about this, like it wouldn't be long before they'd find this woman, find her body so they could salt and burn her bones and get those little girls out of whatever hole it was that this thing had taken them to.


	22. Chapter 22

**A/N: **It's a short one but it's an update. We're so close to the end now and I'm so not done with it that I don't know when I might update the story again. But here's another chapter for you all to enjoy!

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It had taken quite a bit of digging, during which time Dean had cleaned every gun they owned as well as gathered up everything that they'd possibly need to dig up the body and then salt and burn the bones. Sam could tell his older brother was starting to get restless the longer this took but it wasn't easy to find anything about some little girl named April who'd disappeared in the 80s. It wasn't like that was exactly a lot to go on. In fact, Sam had wound up taking a trip to the library and came back with copies of various newspaper articles that he'd found.

"So a little girl named April Mathers disappeared from Tower Grove Park in 1984," Sam said, filling Dean in on what he was able to find out. "She was about 10 years old at the time, blonde hair, blue eyes. Her mom, Julie, wound up totally obsessed about the case. She'd hound the detectives working the case night and day about any of the leads they might have been working on and stuff. Eventually Julie and her husband, Brian, got a divorce and he moved away to get away from it. There isn't much about what happened to him so presumably he started over somewhere else and is still alive but Julie's obsession seems to have led to depression. She was on some medications for it and for the sleeping disorder that she also developed during that time. Three years later, her daughter was still missing and Julie was dead. It sounded a lot like suicide but the ME called it an accidental death. Julie had been drinking heavily at the time and they think she just OD'ed on her meds."

"What about the girl?" Dean asked. He wasn't sure he liked where this was leading but he could see how this woman could have turned into one pissed off spirit.

"Umm ... April Mathers's body was finally found in 1988," Sam said, looking at one of the articles he'd gotten from the library. There weren't a lot of details released to the press from what he could tell but it all sounded pretty grim to Sam. At least what he had been able to piece together anyway. "Along with the bodies of at least eight other girls. They found four still alive but the others had died of starvation and neglect, I guess. The police had some idea on a suspect but they never caught the guy. There's something in one of the articles I found about a rural home the guy must have used at the time. He had what the police had described as a dungeon in the basement complete with little cells and everything. The four girls that survived never talked about what happened there and at least two wound up committing suicide by the time they'd turned 16." He shook his head a little and sighed.

"Okay, so is there actually any good news?"

"They never printed anything about where this house with its secret dungeon might be but I did find out where Julie Mathers had lived," Sam said with a little shrug. "The house passed to her sister after Julie's death and it's been up for sale for the last few months now. Before that, it just sat there unused until Sharon Nichols decided to put it on the market."

"I guess I know where we're headed next," Dean said with a little chuckle, getting up off of his bed and already pulling on his jacket before Sam could even agree with him about it. It seemed like the logical next step anyway.

It had been Sam's thought too. He was hoping they might actually get to talk to Sharon Nichols and see if they could uncover anything that the newspaper articles glossed over, anything that might be of use to them. There were probably things that the police shared with family members that hadn't made it into the papers or at least that was what he was hoping. Their primary objective was getting rid of the ghost of Julie Mathers, of course, but Sam wanted to make sure they rescued the girls the spirit had taken as well. He was up and pulling on his own jacket by the time Dean had reached the door.


	23. Chapter 23

**A/N:** It's been awhile. Sorry for the lack of updates so here's a new chapter! Enjoy!

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Sam and Dean rolled up, parking on the street in front of the house. Sharon Nichols, her blond hair tied back in low ponytail, eyed them a little suspiciously. It was an open house so she'd seen a fair share of people today. Some seemed genuinely interested in the buying the house, some came because the realtor promised free hors d'oeuvres and some came because they knew a bit about the history of the house and were curious. Those were the people Sharon tried to kick out immediately but there hadn't been as many gawkers as she'd originally expected. There were more freeloaders that had shown up actually and she guessed that these two were freeloaders as well.

Still she smoothed her hands down the sides of her brown blazer and put on her best smile. As the real estate agent had suggested, she'd put on a proper business suit and tried to look friendly and professional, greeting everyone who came to the door to thank them for their interest in the house. Someone inside would lead them on a tour of the house and then they could either leave or grab something to eat or talk to the real estate agent handling the sale of the house. Sharon wouldn't have to answer questions unless she wanted to and so far hadn't had to answer a single one.

Sam and Dean had gotten lucky and showed up just before the end of the open house. Soon they'd be locking the place down and they probably would have missed getting to talk to Sharon if that happened. They had contacted the realty company handling the sale of the old Mathers' home and found out about the open house. They lucked out again when they spotted Sharon at the front door.

"Thank you for coming to see the house, gentlemen," Sharon said, nodding. She offered her hand to them with a soft smile. "Someone should be inside to show you around. There's hors d'oeuvres in the kitchen and some information about the house inside as well."

Sam shook her hand first, smiling and nodding. "Actually we were hoping to speak to you, Mrs. Nichols," he said. He used a friendly, gentle tone. The last thing he wanted to do was spook the woman in any way after all.

Sharon still looked surprised, even as she shook Dean's hand as well. "How ... how can I help you gentlemen?" she asked, sounding a little put off by the request made of her. Most of the gawkers weren't so bold so she was worried about what this could possibly be about.

"We're reporters actually, doing a story on the missing girls in town and noticed a link between them and your niece, April," Sam said with a little nod. "We were hoping to get a few minutes of your time to just see if we can't get some facts straightened out about that case. No one is sure that the two are related but it never hurts to follow up on a lead."

Sharon smiled a little and nervously cleared her throat. No one had come around to ask about April or Julie in quite some time so she was surprised but at least they didn't sound like they wanted to sensationalize any story they were working on. She chewed her lip for a moment, glancing inside the house and then looking back at them, not sure what she was going to do just yet. After a long moment, Sharon took a deep breath and finally nodded. "Okay, come inside and we'll talk," she said, turning and gesturing for them to follow her.

Sam and Dean passed by a few people who were chatting about the house and how well-kept it appeared. Most seemed to find it a charming little home, a perfect 'starter house' for a small family. Mostly they were blocking out the conversations and Sam had to swerve Dean away from a plate full of bruschetta and another tray of assorted cheeses and crackers. Dean glared at his little brother, feeling a little hunger pang in his stomach as they passed the food but he figured he'd grab a handful of something on the way out.

Sharon led them outside to the patio. She opened the sliding glass door and gestured for them to sit down on one of the patio chairs set up outside. The house might have appeared to everyone to have been untouched but Sharon had hired a team to come in and clean the place from top to bottom, taking care of the house and the landscaping. The furniture had all been cleaned but was original pieces that belonged to her sister. That included this patio set in the backyard. She closed the sliding glass door behind them and settled in a chair at the table.

"So how can I help the two of you?" Sharon asked, folding her hands in her lap primly and smiling softly. Confusion and concern were clear on her face no matter how she tried to hide it however.

Sam pulled out a notebook from the inside pocket of his jacket as well as a pen. This time he thought it would be useful to take some notes. Just in case Sharon let something important slip during the course of any questions they managed to ask. Sam was figuring that there would come a point when she might get suspicious so he wanted to try to cover as much ground with her as possible before that happened.

"We were hoping you to shed a little light on what happened to April," Dean said, trying to sound as calm and reassuring as possible. It helped that Sam was there though because otherwise he seemed to sometimes come off as abrasive to most people.

"I'm not sure there's much I could tell you," Sharon said, shaking her head. "They never caught the man who did it but the police seemed to believe this man had kidnapped other girls before April and perhaps after. He kept them in a house in a quiet, rural area. I was the one who went to identify my niece's body after Julie ..."

Sam offered a little smile and nodded. He did jot some things down but hoped Sharon could lead them to that house. Or even just give them some clue as to what really did happen to April or Julie for that matter. "Now your sister," he said. His tone was even but there was something reassuring about the look on his face. "Reports say that it was an accidental overdose. Would you say that was true?"

Sharon cleared her throat. Tears were starting to well up a little in her eyes and she fought them back. It was amazing how fresh the grief felt all these years later but it hurt to think about what had happened. "It was an overdose, yes," Sharon said with a little nod. Her voice was softer now, hoarse with emotion. "Julie was on antidepressants and sleeping pills at the time. She had started drinking as well. From what we were told she just took too many pills one night and coupled with all the alcohol in her system, she just went peacefully in her sleep. I ..." She looked down at her hands in her lap. She was wringing her hands a bit and sighed. "I don't think it was an accident though. First April was taken from her, then her husband left her. The police couldn't find April and the longer it was taking, the more Julie seemed to believe it was too late. I think she just got to a point where she couldn't take the waiting anymore."

"So you believe it was suicide?"

Sharon looked up at Sam. She brushed away a few tears and nodded. "Yes, I do," she softly said.

"And she died here? In this house?" Dean said, looking towards the house now, looking through the sliding glass door at the people inside.

"Yes, they found her in her bed."

Dean looked at Sam and the two shrugged. It was just a soft shrug of their shoulders so Sharon missed it. She also missed the looks the brothers exchanged as she spoke. She was staring at her hands again and sniffled a bit.

"Now do you know where this house was? The one where they found April and the other girls?" Sam asked, gently prodding for more information now.

Sharon seemed to think hard about that. She'd been there, yes, but remembering where that was, was another story. She finally nodded. "I recall it being out on Hillsboro House Spring Road," she said with a little nod. She wasn't completely sure about that but it seemed about right now that she'd said it out loud. "It was a walk from the road to the house though. Out towards Bourne Creek. I don't even know if the house still exists. It could have been torn down by now actually."

Sam jotted that down and nodded a bit. It could have been but he was holding on to some hope anyway. It seemed like it would wind up being quite a drive for them but he definitely wanted to see if the house was still there. "So it was in St. Louis County then? It might be interesting to get some pictures of the area for the story," he said, nodding, hoping it sounded plausible to Sharon.

In her current state, she didn't seem to pay too much attention to what was plausible in their 'story' and what wasn't. Sharon just nodded a bit and 'mmm-hmmm'ed to Sam's question. "This guy took the girls way out there," she said, nodding again. "It was part of what took them so long to find the girls. The police seemed to believe he was keeping them somewhere in St. Louis but the house was quite a drive from the park. Do you think he's behind those missing girls now?" She looked panicked and concerned that perhaps that was the 'link' Sam and Dean seemed to have found for their story.

Sam shook his head a bit. "It doesn't seem likely but there's so many similarities to what happened to April and what's happening now that it looks like it could be a copy cat perhaps," he said with a little nod. It sounded plausible to him although that wasn't what he and Dean were thinking. It sounded likely that it was Julie's spirit doing this and Sam was concerned that she was somehow able to take the girls out to the site where April had died.

"Sharon, where was Julie buried?" Dean asked. It sounded rather abrupt coming out of him but he knew it would be useful if this was Julie's spirit and it would mean less research that they'd have to do.

"Zion Cemetery," Sharon asked, sounding a bit suspicious now. "Why do you ask?"

"Just curious," Dean said with a little smile and a nod. He saw Sam jot it down anyway.


	24. Chapter 24

**A/N:** It's been awhile since I've updated, huh? Well here's a new chapter. Hopefully I'll be wrapping up this story soon. I'm just trying to wrap my head around the ending I want to create for this story so it should be wrapped up soon.

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Dean and Sam sat in the Impala which was now parked on the street, just outside of Zion Cemetery. Sam had been the one to suggest that they check it out first, see if they could find the grave while it was still light outside. It would make for less fumbling in the darkness to find it later that night. Dean was itching to get this over with though. They knew what was going on and how to stop it and now that they were at the cemetery, he was ready to just get it done so they could leave. This case had proved to be more irritating than Dean would have liked so finishing the job and getting out was on the forefront of his mind right now.

"You know we'll have to see if we can find those little girls, Dean," Sam suddenly said, glancing from the window to his brother at the moment.

Dean looked over, shaken from his thoughts. He had a slight frown on his face, not sure he liked where his brother was going with this. Dean had figured they'd get rid of the spirit, make sure no other little girls disappeared by staying in town another day or two and then they'd move on. Maybe they'd even call the cops and let them know where the girls might be. At this point he wasn't figuring on driving around to try to find where some little girls were being kept. That was a job of the local police department. "Tonight we'll salt and burn the bones and then we're done, Sammy," he said with a little nod as if to say that was the end of the conversation.

"There's a bunch of little girls out there that need someone to find them, Dean. The cops don't even know where to look in the first place. We do," Sam said, looking out the window as he spoke now. It was overcast outside and had just started to rain. His mind started turning on how that would work to their advantage. The ground would be softer tonight because of the recent rainfall. But Sam shook those thoughts off, focusing on one thought: saving those little girls.

Dean sighed a bit and softly shrugged his shoulders, his eyes on his brother as he spoke right now. "We can give the cops an anonymous tip or something. I mean, we're not even sure that the ghost is keeping them in that house or if that house is even there anymore to begin with."

Sam looked over at Dean again, a serious and determined look on his face. His jaw was set and his eyes seemed to gleam with determination. This wasn't one of those things that he was just going to let go. He didn't care how rough they'd had it until this point or how irritating the case had been. It was part of the job and an important part at that. Otherwise, Sam didn't think what they were going to do tonight was really worth it. Not if they were going to leave those little girls out there for who knew how long until the police actually went out to get them. "It's the best lead we've got and it's part of the job," he said with a little nod of his own now. "We're not going to leave those little girls there for who knows how long while the cops decide whether or not they want to follow our anonymous tip, Dean."

Dean sighed and shrugged his shoulders again, resigning himself to the fact that there was no other way for this thing to end. There would be no reasoning with Sam when he was like this and he knew that he wouldn't feel right if they just took off either. For as annoyed as he'd become with the case, for as tiresome as it had become, he knew that no matter what he said that he wouldn't have been okay with leaving those girls out there once they'd taken care of the spirit. Sam was right. It was part of the job. It was the thankless part but they'd do it because no one else would. Or at least no one else would manage to do it right anyhow. That was something Dean figured only he and Sam could manage. "All right, tonight we dig up the body, salt and burn it," he said with a little nod of his own, glancing out the windshield now. "And at dawn, we'll check out that house and see if we can find those girls."


	25. Chapter 25

**A/N:** We're just chapters away from the end of this story. I hope everyone who has read it has enjoyed the story. I also hope you've read the first story in the series and that you've enjoyed it as well. Reviews are appreciated but not required. They just make me smile whenever I get a new one and feed my muse so I can write more. :)

* * *

Ellie was slowly eating the peanut butter and jelly sandwich that she had found waiting for her when she woke up that morning. For a long while, she just picked at the crust, wanting to make the sandwich last. She'd gone almost two whole days without eating anything though and eventually that need for sustenance won out. Ellie looked over at Nina who was also slowly eating right now. Nina, however, was staring at Erica while she chewed. None of them were talking right now, mostly because none of them really knew what to say.

Ellie had woke up that morning and seemed to just know that something was wrong with Erica. The other girl was slow to rouse and even then didn't seem to fully wake up. Ellie didn't think anything about it at the time but then Erica refused to eat and only took a couple of sips of water. Erica was curled up in the fetal position, lying on her side right now. That was the way she'd been laying for awhile actually which was definitely something Ellie had noticed.

Nina looked scared, confused about what was going on. She was young but not stupid. People didn't kidnap little kids and then just let them go. She worried that she might die in this little 'room' or just never see her parents again. And now one of the girls she was with seemed like she was sick and there was nothing Nina could actually do to help. She was the kind of little girl that always tried to help others but right now she felt helpless, powerless to do anything but sit there and watch Erica get sicker.

Erica wasn't asleep but she had her eyes closed right now. She groaned a little, making a face as if she were in pain and seemed to try to ball herself up even more. She was sweating but felt like she was so cold right now. Her stomach hurt so much and Erica had no idea why. Just the smell of that peanut butter and jelly sandwich made her stomach turn which was why it was stuck in the corner, away from where Erica was facing. She didn't want to smell it or look at it so Ellie had moved it since Erica couldn't seem to make herself move at all really. And now there was just more pain, like a knife in her stomach or something.

Of course Erica had never experienced a knife in her stomach but it seemed like it was an appropriate analogy somehow. She knew that she was sick and couldn't make coherent any statements but her mind was still working. She was fully aware of the pain and how it felt and of all the smells around her. Erica was knew that if she opened her eyes she'd see the other girls eating which she figured would just make her throw up so she kept her eyes closed. The dim light in the room seemed to make her head hurt anyway. Every bit of her body ached but her stomach was where all of the pain seemed to emanate from. Whatever was wrong, it was serious. She knew that much.

Ellie set aside the other half of her sandwich. She was going to play it safe and save some for later. And she had no plans on eating Erica's sandwich, hoping the other girl would eat it eventually anyway. She couldn't take food from the other little girl even if she was starving and right now Ellie's stomach seemed at least somewhat happy with the bit of food she had eaten. Ellie got up and moved to sit by Erica now, glancing to see Nina looking at her own food instead of looking in Erica's direction.

"Are you okay?" Ellie softly asked. Which she knew was a dumb question since Erica was obviously in pain but she couldn't just sit there in the silence anymore.

Erica groaned in response and then rolled over onto her back. The change in position didn't help the pain though and tears started to fall as it seemed like it only got worse. She felt a soft hand brushing her forehead and stroking her hair a little. Erica figured it was Ellie but it still seemed to have a soothing effect. Erica rolled over one more time so she was on her side again, this time facing the opposite direction however. She groaned again, the pain shooting through her body with the movement but it felt better to lay on her side anyway so that was what she was going to do.

"We'll get out of here," Ellie softly said, still brushing a hand at Erica's hair. "We'll get out of here and you'll get to a hospital and you'll get all better. You'll see. I'm sure there are tons of people out there still looking for us. There's got to be." She tried to sound hopeful, like she really did believe it but she'd heard some murmurs from another of the little 'rooms' and knew another of the little girls had died in her sleep overnight. Ellie didn't know who it was and she didn't want to know either. All she knew was she didn't want to see Erica die too. Someone was going to find them if they just held onto that hope.


	26. Chapter 26

**A/N:** I have no idea what this cemetery actually looks like or anything so I'm just winging it here. Don't get mad if I get it wrong but I couldn't find too many details to really make sure it was as 'real' as possible so this is what we end up with. Hope you enjoy anyway!

* * *

Dean sat in the Impala, the car running, keeping watch, while Sam picked the lock on the gates to the cemetery. It wasn't like his car was the quietest vehicle around but he knew that it would be a lot easier to drive in then it would be to have to carry everything they needed with them and walk from the main gates to the plot where Julie Mathers was laid to rest. So no matter how loud the Impala was, Dean was going to stay put with the car running and keep watch.

Dean had actually made a comment to Sam on that whole 'laid to rest' thing while they were on their way back to the cemetery. He'd said that the woman couldn't have been actually 'laid to rest' if her ghost was out abducting little girls and taking them off to who knew where. But, he added, that was why he and Sam were going to make sure that Julie finally did get 'put to rest' by salting and burning her remains which was something Sam had silently agreed on.

After a long moment, Sam pushed open the gate, doing so quickly to keep any squeaks to a minimum and then waited for Dean to pull in. He looked around a little just to check to see if anyone was coming up the street before Sam pulled the gate shut and attempted to make it look like the place was still locked up in case someone actually did drive by. After all, the last thing that they needed was some well-meaning motorist to drive past, see the gate open and have them call the cops about it. Dean waited just past the gate for Sam to hop in again before driving any farther into the cemetery.

"So she's buried in row 21 in section 2," Sam said after closing the door behind himself. He was watching where they were driving right now however. They'd visited the plot earlier, during the daylight hours, but at night he knew it might be harder to find again so he was keeping an eye on where they were going so Dean didn't get himself turned around.

"Dude, I remember where we're going," Dean said with a sigh, looking around as well. "It's not like we're going to get lost in here."

"With your sense of direction?"

Dean made a sour face at that and glanced at his brother, noticing that almost smug little smile on Sam's face now which he didn't like the looks of at all. "Just watch to make sure we don't pass it, Sammy," he said, sounding rather exasperated. He'd actually passed by it while it was still daylight out so Dean didn't want to make that mistake now. Not if it would give Sam more ammunition to mess with him.

Sam silently nodded, seeming satisfied that he'd gotten his point across to Dean. He watched on his side, figuring his brother would keep an eye on the other side. Sam recalled there being a tree near where Julie Mathers was buried so he was keeping an eye out for that now. Any landmark that they could keep an eye out for seemed like a good thing.

"Over there," Sam finally said, nodding just a few feet ahead of where they were now. He was pretty certain it was the spot, recalling a few of the more unique headstones as well.

Dean nodded and drove up a few more feet before putting the car in park. It would be a straight shot from the car to the grave from here which he was thankful for. He got out, knowing Sam was right behind him, and headed for the trunk. After opening it, he pulled out two shovels, handing one off to his brother, and everything else they'd need to salt and burn the body. It was going to be quick and easy and hopefully it'd put an end to this. Dean knew they still had to see if they could find those little girls but other than that, he figured their part in this was over as soon as that body went up in flames.

Sam led the way to the grave, taking long strides. At this point, he was ready to get it over with in the hopes of getting to those little girls before something really bad happened to them. Right now his hopes were to get to that house, find about a dozen weary but otherwise healthy girls and hopefully get them all somewhere safe where the police could sort the rest of it out. Sam stopped when they reached the headstone and looked down at it for a moment. "You know, I can kind of understand why she's doing it," he off-handedly commented as he started to dig.

"What?"

Sam looked up from what he was doing to see Dean giving him this confused look. He shrugged though and shook his head. "It's just that someone took her little girl, right? So it's kind of like she's just trying to keep these girls safe too," Sam said even as he stuck his shovel into the ground to dig up the grave.

Dean shook his head and sighed. "Yeah, well, in the process, who knows how many little girls she actually did more harm for than good," he said as he started digging as well.

"Yeah, I guess. Just being so distraught over never knowing what happened to her own daughter, I suppose her spirit was hanging around, hoping to do some good," Sam said with another little shrug, even as he continued to dig.

"Ghosts have a pretty twisted sense of doing good."

Sam chuckled a little at that, knowing Dean was right. After awhile it seemed like whatever good they might have thought they were doing just got twisted. Especially in a case like this. It seemed like the ghost of Julie Mathers was only trying to make sure what happened to her own daughter didn't happen to another girl, or that was Sam's take on it anyway, and in the process probably endangered the lives of the girls she took more than anything else. He shook his head at the thought though and kept digging.


	27. Chapter 27

**A/N:** Sorry so short but it's an update, right? I'm getting so close to putting up everything that I've already written so the updates really are getting scarce. I'm sorry about that.

* * *

Nina let out a loud, piercing scream, making Ellie cover her ears to shield them from the noise. Ellie wasn't exactly sure why it was but she was much more relaxed than Nina right now, especially given the circumstances. While Nina was shouting and pacing and freaking out, Ellie just sat against the cool, back wall with Erica's head in her lap, stroking the other little girl's hair softly. She looked down at Erica and then over to Nina, not sure who needed the comfort more right now.

"Hey," Nina shouted, looking out into the room outside of the little 'room' they were in. She didn't know who might hear her but she wasn't going to just sit there. Not now, not with Erica sick like she was. There was no way Nina was going to just sit there and let the other girl die. "Hey, help us!"

"Nina," Ellie softly said. She noticed Nina was ready to shout again so she raised her voice a little more this time. "Nina, don't. Stop it!"

Nina whipped around, looking surprised and confused at what she was just told to do. Just sitting there wasn't going to fix things. This was something she thought might work, something that could get the attention of someone, anyone out there who might be able to save them. "What? Why? Erica's going to die if we don't get help," she said in a hurried voice, looking scared and worried and confused all at once. "I thought ..."

"Just stop, okay? She won't help us and there's no one else out there. Not yet anyway," Ellie said, her voice steady and calm. Her voice was softer though and she looked so small and helpless and worn down. She was slowly starting to wonder if they would get out of there which was probably keeping Ellie so calm now. If there was no way out of this situation, she saw no reason to fight. Besides that she just didn't have any more fight left in her in the first place. "Just sit down, okay? We'll figure this out."

Nina slowly nodded and moved to the back wall where Ellie was sitting, sitting down next to Ellie. She pulled her legs to her chest and hugged them tightly, resting her chin on her knees. She felt like they might not get out of this either but she still felt the need to fight, the need to do something or she thought she might go crazy. But if Ellie said they'd figure this out, that's all Nina needed to hear. "Someone will come to save us, right?"

Ellie looked over and shrugged, still stroking Erica's hair. "Yeah, hopefully."

"Before Erica dies, right?" Nina nervously looked at Erica laying there. It was getting hard to tell sometimes if the other girl was breathing but looking now she could see that Erica was breathing but it was shallow.

Ellie leaned her head onto Nina's shoulder, feeling Nina's head rest on top of her own. She sighed softly, not entirely sure it would happen in time to save Erica but she didn't want to scare Nina anymore than the girl was. Plus it helped to believe, even a little bit, that it might happen. They didn't know what was wrong with Erica in the first place and someone might, at some point, come wandering this way and happen upon wherever it was they were. It was a long shot but Ellie figured it was a possibility. "Maybe," she softly said, closing her eyes softly now while still softly brushing her fingers through Erica's hair. It helped to feel Nina and Erica close. It let Ellie know she wasn't alone in this. "I hope it'll happen that way."

Nina brushed away a few tears and sniffled softly. She took a deep breath, her body shuddering a little as she let it out. She was cold and scared and if it wasn't for Ellie and Erica, she would have felt so alone right now. She didn't want to die here. Nina didn't want anyone else to die here either since she knew two other girls were dead already and that was too many for Nina to even process. "Yeah, me too."


	28. Chapter 28

**A/N:** It's been awhile since I've updated, huh? Here's another chapter. The updates are going to be slow going now as I work diligently to finish my story. Hopefully I'll get it done before I get to 'caught up' because right now I feel like I'm just on chapter behind what I have written already and it's kind of crazy.

* * *

Dean looked unsure as they pulled up to the old farm house. Looking at it now, he figured that it used to look like a pretty amazing house but in the years since it had been abandoned, time had not been good to the house. The porch looked like it was barely standing and the paint was faded and peeling. It looked like no one had been out here in a decade at least. The grass was overgrown and there were weeds everywhere. Dean wondered if the place looked like this when the police found all those little girls last time. It was in a secluded area and it didn't look like the road got a lot of traffic. He wasn't surprised that it had taken so long to find the girls out here – then and now.

Dean put the car into park and looked over at Sam, the uncertainty about this written on his face now. "Are you sure this is the place?" he asked, glancing from his brother to the house again.

Sam nodded, looking at the house as well. He'd gotten a hold of an old police report and found to exact location of the house where April and the other girls had been found all those years ago and this was it. It seemed like the most likely location for the girls that had gone missing recently to be held so Sam wanted to check here first. If push came to shove, they'd check Julie Mathers's old house as well but this felt like the place. "Yeah, this is it," he said, moving to get out of the car.

Dean followed, practically slamming the door shut as he got out. They'd passed houses on the way to this rural spot so Dean knew the area was in fact populated but right now it didn't feel that way. It seemed so quiet here. It made him even uneasier. He started for the front porch, looking over at Sam as he took a tentative step onto the stairs. They groaned and creaked as he walked up the four stairs leading to the porch but they held so Sam followed his brother up the stairs. There were boards missing from the porch, leaving a hole Sam and Dean needed to dodge in order to make it to the front door.

The screen door was hanging on by a hinge and when Dean opened it, the door fell off. He looked at Sam as the door hit the porch with a crash. He reached for the doorknob to the front door and tried it. The door was locked and while they could have picked the lock, Dean decided to just kick it in instead. If the girls were inside, the noise would probably tip them off and hopefully he and Sam would hear them shouting from wherever it was they were being kept. Plus he didn't feel like bothering with the lock when the door looked like it would be easy to break down.

"Was that necessary?" Sam asked, rolling his eyes a bit at his older brother. He turned on his little flashlight and had a shotgun loaded with rock salt ready. It didn't seem like it would be necessary but Dean had insisted that they went in armed so Sam didn't argue. He swept the area with his flashlight, looking inside. The place was dusty and filled with cobwebs. Sam swore he even heard some mice scurrying around in what must have been the living room.

"It totally was," Dean said with a little grin. He walked inside first, a flashlight in one hand and his gun in the other. He did a sweep of the area as well and carefully walked into the living room.

Sam softly chuckled, shaking his head as he followed behind Dean. Sam moved towards the kitchen instead. He was trying to listen carefully in case the girls were shouting. He wanted to be able to hear them but he hadn't heard anything yet besides the scurrying of those little mouse feet on the floor. He turned to see Dean coming in through another doorway, presumably from a dining room. Sam lowered his gun but continued to search the area with his flashlight.

"Did you hear that?" Dean suddenly asked. He moved towards a sound he swore he had heard. He saw Sam cock his head a bit as his little brother strained his ears to listen. Dean thought he heard something again and nodded. The little beam of light from his flashlight landed on what looked like a door.

Sam shrugged and moved towards the door. The doorknob squeaked as he turned it but it did turn and he was able to pull the door open. That's when he heard what Dean must have heard. Voices from several little girls shouting for help. Relief seemed to wash over him as Sam realized that they'd found the girls and would now be able to get them out of there safely.

Nina had fallen into a fitful sleep when she heard something above them. She looked over at Ellie who shrugged and both girls moved closer to the bars that kept them in their little 'room'. Erica didn't move, her shallow breathing the only indication that she was still alive. From where they were, Nina and Ellie could hear movement from the other little 'cells' and voices starting to whisper amongst themselves.

"Someone's upstairs," Nina said, sounding both nervous and hopeful.

Ellie nodded, holding onto the bars tightly now. "Help!" she shouted, deciding to give it a try. Perhaps someone found wherever this place was and they would be able to hear the girls. After Ellie shouted, others did the same and soon they seemed to be shouting for help in unison. Nine voices coming from nine broken little girls, all shouting for help from whomever might be upstairs.

They didn't hear the door open or the footsteps coming down the stairs but it wasn't long before two men came into view. Nina and Ellie exchanged a look, excitement clear on their faces. And relief. They were about to be saved.

Dean looked around the room, a heavy sensation in the pit of his stomach. The place smelled like death and it made his stomach turn. He wouldn't admit it to Sam but he felt like he wanted to get sick, seeing the makeshift dungeon in this basement. People, he had decided long ago, were just crazy and the person who had dreamt this little place up had to have been a certifiable lunatic. Eighteen little eyes were watching Dean and Sam, nine little girls who were all in various states of disarray. He headed for the nearest 'cell' to work on the lock.

"Is everyone okay?"

Dean looked over when he heard Sam's voice. He saw his younger brother moving to a cell as well and then focused on the lock. He couldn't look at the little faces staring at him. It hurt too much to see those broken, lost little girls watching him with such hope. Sam and Dean were like knights in shining armor, bursting in and rescuing the little princesses from the wicked witch that had locked them in a dungeon somewhere. He could see it in their faces when he did glance at them, that look of awe and excitement and relief and it actually hurt him to see it, to see them looking at him with that look of 'hero worship'. He was sure the girls were giving Sam the same look.

"One of the girls here is dead," said a little voice from the cell next to the one Dean was working on.

"Here too," came another little voice a bit farther down.

"My friend is sick," said another little voice, this one coming from behind Dean.

He opened one of the cells and helped out two little girls. There weren't any bodies in the little room so Dean assumed there weren't any who'd died in this cell. He moved to the next one and glanced inside. There was one girl inside, her face dirty with bright blue eyes staring at him. Behind her was a dead body and he had to fight to keep from shuddering.

"Sam," Dean said. It was all he needed to say as he glanced over at his little brother. Sam was helping two other little girls out of a cell, ready to move to another. Dean glanced behind him at the girls gathering, huddling together in the middle of the room. There were four so far, five including the one he was letting out now.

Sam nodded and moved to another cell, picking the lock so he could get out another little girl to make the group they'd gotten out six girls now. He glanced to see Dean moving to the other side of the room now. Sam helped out the little girl, seeing an unmoving body in the cell. He closed his eyes and sighed. They were too late to save them all but it looked like he and Dean would manage to save most of them. It wasn't the same but it would have to be 'enough'.

Dean moved to the other side of the room and started working on the lock. "Is she okay?" he said, nodding to the girl lying with her back facing him.

One of the little girls shook her head. "She's really sick. I think she needs a doctor really bad," she softly said. Her voice wavered a little as tears filled her eyes.

Dean saw a strength in this little girl though and nodded. "It's okay. We'll get you guys out of here, all right?" he softly said, glancing at the other girl in the cell as well. "You just have to trust us."

"Okay," the other girl said, ready when Dean opened the cell door and reached for her to help her out.

Dean helped the second girl out and then reached into the cell to carry the third girl out. The cells were all raised off the ground slightly so he couldn't walk in and the ceilings were so low he wouldn't have been able to stand up in them. They were the perfect size, he noted, for little 10-year-old girls though. And that made his stomach turn even more. He cradled the sick girl in his arms and looked at Sam who was herding the little girls together, all nine of them, and starting to lead them to the stairs.

He wasn't going to say it but he was glad that they'd done this, glad that Sam had been stubborn and talked him into finding this place. Dean hated that two girls died in the time it took them to figure this one out but they'd managed to save nine girls, ten if they were lucky and got this one to the hospital soon enough. Once they all made it outside, however, it was obvious that they'd never get all the girls into the Impala and it probably would have looked pretty suspicious to someone if they tried.

Sam opened the back passenger door for Dean and watched as his older brother carefully laid the little girl in the backseat. He was almost surprised to see how gentle his older brother was being right now. It was one of those 'sometimes I don't even know my own brother' moments where Sam realized that Dean really wasn't as cocky and hardened as he sometimes seemed. Sam pulled out his phone, realizing they'd need to get someone out here to help get all these girls to the hospital. He was listening to the phone ring after dialing '911' as he watched Dean take off his jacket to lay it over the unconscious little girl.


	29. Chapter 29

**A/N:** My goodness, it's been awhile since there's been an update. I'm so very sorry about that but I'm having a bit of writer's block. I'm working hard on trying to finish the story though and am just a couple chapters away from doing so. Hopefully I'll get it finished sooner than I think, which will mean you'll get an update sooner than this one.

* * *

Sam and Dean had sat out in front of the farmhouse with the girls, waiting for the police and paramedics to arrive. It was eerily quiet but it wasn't like Sam or Dean knew what to say and the girls mostly seemed to huddle together and look around nervously. As soon as the police and paramedics arrived, the girls were all whisked away, checked over by the paramedics before the girls that seemed to have a good bill of health were taken by the police officers to awaiting squad cars.

Sam and Dean watched as paramedics wheeled out two gurneys, sheets covering the bodies of two little girls. There were three ambulances, two fire trucks and several police cars outside the old farmhouse now. The sky was slowly starting to brighten as the sun started to rise. One of the ambulances started to pull out with the sick little girl inside. Sam turned his head to watch it drive off, lights on and sirens blaring as it sped off to the nearest hospital. The other two ambulances followed.

The paramedics had checked out all of the other girls but they were being herded into the backs of the police cars and the local police were going to drive the rest of the girls to the hospital to be checked out by a doctor. One of the officers headed over to the Impala, an open notepad in hand. Dean saw it coming and sighed, almost squirming. He was ready to head out of there because the last thing he wanted to do was talk to the cops. But it looked like they were going to have to anyway.

"It was lucky you two were driving out this way," the officer said. His nameplate read _Quinn_. He was tapping his pen on the notepad, eying Sam and Dean suspiciously.

"Yeah, we were headed out of town and managed to get turned around out here," Dean said with a shrug. "Had to pull over to make a pit stop, if you know what I mean. And it's not like there's any gas stations that close so …"

Sam offered up a little smile and nodded, making sure he stuck with whatever story Dean was going with right now. "My brother thought he heard something in the house so we went to check it out. I know we shouldn't have but once we got inside, we heard the girls and got out the ones that we could and then called 911."

"You're right, young man. You shouldn't have gone inside. You pretty much contaminated the entire crime scene," Officer Quinn said with a sigh. "Did you see anyone else inside? Anything that might help us find who had abducted the girls?"

Sam shook his head. "No, sir. All we saw were those little girls in the basement. If anyone else had been there, they weren't there when we showed up," he said with a little shrug.

"All right, well, thank you for your help."

Dean rolled his eyes, knowing the local police department wouldn't make heads or tails of this one and would blame it on some unknown pedophile or something of that nature and they'd let the case go cold, file it away with other cases like it. It sucked that the girls would never really know what happened to them and that their parents would always walk around, wondering where the creep who had kidnapped their child was but Dean felt like it was almost better this way. The girls got to keep some bit of innocence in not knowing the truth about this and that was something.

Dean looked over to see a little girl climbing out of the back of one of the police cars. No one was paying much attention to the girls at the moment. The officers were too busy trying to get up the crime scene tape, walking around and hoping to collect evidence. There were a few officers talking to some of the girls but there wasn't anyone around the one patrol car, the one the little girl had just slipped out of. She headed over towards Sam and Dean with a little smile. He saw Sam notice the girl and saw his brother smile back. Dean looked over again and nodded at the girl.

"Hi," she softly said, giving them a little wave. "I … Thank you for saving us."

"We were just passing by," Dean said with a shrug.

"But you came inside and you found us. So thank you."

Sam smiled and knelt down to get a little closer to eye level with the little girl. "You're welcome. I'm Sam and this is my brother Dean."

"I'm Ellie. Nina wanted to say thank you too but she's afraid to get out of the car."

"Why?" Dean asked, kneeling down as well now.

"She's afraid that woman will grab her again. Who was she? Why did she even take us?" Ellie asked, her words sounding hurried like she was in a rush to get it all out.

Dean straightened up and held out his hand for Ellie and then walked over to the patrol car with her. There was an officer who glanced in their direction but there was too much going on right now, too many things they needed to take care of that no one seemed to pay much mind to Dean walking the little girl back to the patrol car. Sam was right behind them though, curious to find out what Dean was doing right now. He watched Dean help Ellie into the car again and saw him kneel down to look inside at both of the little girls. Sam leaned in, looking in from above the opened door.

"Hey, Ellie here tells me that your name is Nina," Dean said to the other little girl. "Well I'm Dean and this is Sam. We wanted to come over and see if you're okay."

"I'm okay. Will you come visit us at the hospital? I hate hospitals," Nina said. She too sounded hurried as she spoke. "Will my mommy be there? I just want to go home. Do you think they'll let us go home?"

"Whoa, hey, slow down there," Dean said with a little smile and a soft, amused chuckle. "You know what? My brother and I are going to go to our motel room, clean up and then we'll come see how you girls are doing, okay? I promise that we'll be there to visit you at the hospital though."

Nina let out a little sigh and nodded, a soft smile on her face now. "Okay," she softly said. She yawned and stretched out a little, shifting like she was getting ready to get comfortable to go to sleep. "You promise?"

Dean nodded. "Yeah, Nina, I promise." He was caught by surprise when Ellie leaned over and kissed his cheek. He looked up at Sam in surprise and saw the little girl kind of stretching out to try to reach for Sam as well.

Sam shifted a bit more to move around the door so he could lean in enough for Ellie to reach him. She kissed his cheek as well and then settled back into the back seat of the patrol car. Sam gave Dean's shoulder a pat as his older brother straightened out and the two started back for the Impala.

"So are we really going to see how they're doing at the hospital?" Sam asked, glancing over at his brother as they reached the car. He opened the passenger side door as he watched Dean open the driver's side door.

Dean looked over at his brother and nodded. "Yeah, I promised we would."


	30. Chapter 30

**A/N:** Thanks to those of you still reading this. I appreciate it and hope to get the last two chapters finished and up soon.

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It had been a quiet ride to the hospital. Although Dean had originally thought about going back to the motel so he and Sam could clean up, he wound up heading to the hospital after all the squad cars had left the scene instead. He'd made a promise to one of the little girls to be there and Dean wasn't going to forget about that. The radio was turned down low and neither Sam nor Dean was paying much attention to the music. Sam was staring out the passenger side window, his face turned away while Dean stared straight ahead.

Dean pulled into the visitor's parking garage and drove around until he found a spot, muttering a few curses under his breath when he found one only to realize the Impala wouldn't fit in it. It had taken a bit of driving around before he found another spot but after parking, Dean glanced over at Sam and then got out of the car. Sam didn't look over at Dean but when he knew they were parked and when he heard his brother getting out, Sam got out as well. Both of them nearly jumped as the sound of the car doors shutting in unison seemed to echo through the parking garage.

They headed inside, heading straight for the nearest information desk. Dean had to stop himself from pulling out a badge to flash at the older woman sitting there. It was such a force of habit but it wasn't necessary this time. Of course, they didn't actually need to ask to find where the girls had been taken. All Sam and Dean would have had to do was follow all the police officers that seemed to be moving back and forth, probably coming and going from various rooms, talking to the little girls.

"We were wondering where we could find an Ellie or a Nina," Sam softly said. He noticed Dean was looking around, seeming a little uneasy so Sam jumped in to ask about the little girls instead. "They would have just been brought in."

"It's a horrible thing, what happened to those girls," the woman said, shaking her head. "How do you know them?"

"We, uh … we were just passing through the area and found them," Sam said, his voice almost sounding a little shaky. He took a moment to compose himself, clearing his throat. "We were hoping to check in on them, make sure they're okay."

The woman smiled softly, her eyes seemed to gloss over with tears now as well. She took a deep breath herself and nodded. "Of course," she said, getting a couple of visitor's passes for the boys. "Just sign in here. There's an Ellie Mayer and a Nina Gardner in room 201."

Sam signed in for the both of them and handed Dean a visitor's pass before putting on his own. They didn't say anything to one another, just exchanged little looks and then headed for the room. Sam entered the room first, almost wishing they'd stopped in the gift shop before doing any of this. The hospital room seemed so empty, so cheerless. He felt like they should have brought something to help cheer up the girls. Of course that thought left his head as soon as he saw how the girls seemed to smile as soon as Sam and Dean entered the room.

"You came," Ellie softly said, smiling brightly as she looked from one brother to the other.

Dean softly smiled and nodded. "How are you two doing? Everything okay?" he said, almost sounding awkward. He didn't know what to say to the little girls but it seemed like saying something was better than sitting there quietly.

"Yeah, the one policeman we talked to said our parents should be coming soon," Ellie said, nodding. "And they're getting us some grilled cheese sandwiches and fries and ice cream."

Nina giggled and nodded enthusiastically from her bed. More than anything, she was happy to get to eat real food again. She was glad that her parents would be coming and hoped to go home soon but until then having the guys that rescued her and some real food seemed pretty wonderful right now. "They told us to pick whatever we wanted to eat and they'd get it for us," she said with another little nod.

Sam chuckled a little, seeing these girls smiling and happy now. It probably helped to be out of that place, knowing that whatever had happened to them was over now. He was hoping they wouldn't carry with them any feelings of guilt or fear about the world around them now but he still felt like some of their innocence had been taken from them after all this. There was no way they could be totally unaffected by the ordeal.

He heard the TV on and glanced to see what the girls had been watching. It was some cartoon movie. It looked like a Disney film but Sam wasn't sure what it was. He looked at Nina and Ellie again and saw them both staring at Sam and Dean with these wide eyes, this look of total 'hero worship', which seemed so odd to him. They hadn't been able to save all the girls so he didn't exactly feel like a 'hero' right now.

"No one will talk to us about what happened there, you know," Ellie said, suddenly sounding very serious. "About the girls that died or how Erica is doing. Do you think she'll be okay?"

Dean looked over at Sam and then to Ellie and Nina again. "I'm sure she'll be fine," he said, nodding. He wasn't sure he sounded like he was confident in that answer but he hoped the girls didn't notice that. "And you're all safe now so that's all that matters."

"Who was the woman that took us? I mean, weird stuff happened when we were there and I don't understand why she took us, what she wanted from us," Ellie said.

Nina was looking at the TV now but had an ear to the conversation. She wouldn't ask these questions but she wanted answers too. When she did glance over, Nina looked nervous, almost afraid to hear what Sam and Dean might have to say.

Dean looked ready to make something up, to bullshit his way through this but he wasn't sure the girls would believe him if he did make something up. He cleared his throat and looked away, glancing at the TV. "So what are you watching?" he asked, trying to change the subject.

"Why were you out there? Why did you stop?" Ellie said, determined to get answers. She wasn't going to let them change the subject. After everyone else was treating her and the others with 'kid gloves', Ellie was ready to get the truth from someone.

"You wouldn't believe us if we told you," Dean said, trying to sound light-hearted and smiling a bit. He shook his head and glanced at Sam. He didn't know how much they should tell the girls, how much the girls could handle hearing right now. He was hoping his little brother had the answer to that, which was why he looked to Sam now.

Ellie cocked her head to the side a little and looked confused. She felt like she would have believed a lot but she didn't know what Dean might mean by that. She looked at Sam like she thought she'd find the answers there but wound up looking even more confused. Unless something truly crazy had been going on, Ellie thought she would have believed whatever she was told about what had happened.

Nina looked confused too and pouted. "But why?" she softly said, looking from Sam to Dean now.

Dean nervously cleared his throat and looked at his younger brother. He nodded his head a little bit in the direction of the girls when he looked at Sam, looking like he wanted his little brother to field these questions. Dean was at such a loss for how to explain this without actually telling the girls the truth. It wasn't like this would be the first time he'd have to lie to someone about this kind of thing. There was just something about those pleading eyes and those pouty faces that he couldn't quite take.

Sam seemed to have a little silent argument with Dean before sighing and looking over at the girls. He had to admit that they looked so sweet and innocent that it was difficult to not answer their questions but it was that sweetness and innocence that Sam hoped the girls could hold on to. And if he told them that it was a ghost that had taken then, well, he was afraid he'd shatter that innocence in them forever. Sam shot Dean a dirty look. It was something akin to telling his brother 'thanks a lot for sticking me with this'. He sighed as he looked at those sweet faces again. What was he supposed to tell these girls? How could he lie to them? But if he didn't lie, how could he ever tell them the truth?

"It's complicated," Sam said with a little shrug, knowing complicated didn't even begin to explain it. "But … we were there to help. We'd been trying to find you … all of you."

"You're not with the police so why were you looking for us?" Ellie asked. "How did you know where to find us?"

"Wow," Dean said, looking around a bit. "You'd think that your parents would be here by now." He at least had the good sense to look sorry when Sam smacked his arm. Dean cleared his throat and then looked at his feet.

"What happened to the woman that took us?" Nina asked.

"She … went away and she won't be coming back to hurt anyone else," Sam said with a little nod. "You'll be safe now. I promise."

"But what if she does come back? What if she tries to take us again?" Nina asked, sounding a bit panicked at the thought. "What if she isn't really gone?"

"I can promise you that she won't be coming back, okay?" Sam softly said. He moved to stand between Nina and Ellie's beds and smiled softly at them. He looked from one girl to the other as he spoke, wanting to make sure they were both listening carefully now. "She won't be coming back for you or any other little girls ever again. I know that maybe doesn't make sense to you right now but I want you to believe me when I say that woman is long gone and she won't be coming back."

"But what about the girls that died? And Erica?" Ellie asked. "What happened?"

"I don't know," Dean said with a little shrug. His voice was devoid of all that bravado he sometimes seemed to put on. Instead he spoke softly, gently right now. "I don't know what happened to the other girls or how Erica is although we will go check on her too. All I know is that you're all safe now. And that's all you need to know, okay?"

"Okay," Ellie said, nodding a bit. Nina nodded too.

Jackie Mayer walked into the room, followed by her husband and son. They headed in with balloons in tow. Dean actually had to step aside to let them in and Sam moved to let them surround Ellie's bed. The brothers watched as the family exchanged hugs and excited greetings. Jackie glanced at them and smiled, looking like she wanted to come over and hug them or thank them. But she also looked too torn between doing that and sitting with her daughter. Sam and Dean knew that their daughter would win out in that and just nodded to her and smiled a little themselves.

They watched the scene repeat itself when Nina's parents came into the room. There was another exchange, this time Nina's father seemed to smile and nod at them while Sam and Dean just nodded back. Sam looked at Dean then and nodded towards the door. Dean watched for a moment longer and then followed Sam out of the room, figuring they'd go check on Erica now and let Ellie and Nina's families have their time with their daughters.


	31. Chapter 31

**A/N:** I know I promised to get this up 'soon' and it's been quite a long time. I apologize for that. I am STILL working on the last chapter for this as you read this and hope to get something up eventually. In the meantime, I have been working on a Christmas-y kind of story as well that should go up soon too. I have WAY too much on my plate at once and have been neglecting this for far too long. I'm sorry for that but if you're still reading this, I appreciate it greatly and hope you enjoy this update!

* * *

Sam was glad that he'd talked his brother into stopping at the hospital gift shop before they went to see Erica. It wasn't like the room was loaded with balloons and flowers and such but there were some gifts there already so he was glad they were walking in with a couple of 'get well soon' balloons with cartoon characters on them and a dark brown teddy bear. Even for all of his grumbling about the cost, Dean seemed pretty pleased to be walking in with gifts for the little girl.

There were only two other people in the room when Sam and Dean walked in: Erica's parents. And Erica's father was the first to notice Sam and Dean enter the room. He eyed them suspiciously for a long moment, actually making the boys fidget a little under the man's steady gaze.

"Can we help you?" her father asked.

Sam cleared his throat before speaking. "We just wanted to see how Erica was doing," he said with a small smile. "We were just concerned about your daughter, sir."

Erica's mother sat up a little straighter now, her gaze pulled from her daughter as Sam spoke. "Are you the two who found all of the girls, who found our daughter?"

Dean nodded, setting the balloons aside, the weights on them lightly hitting the floor as he did so. "We were just passing by," he said with a shrug.

"The girls were lucky that you two happened by," Erica's father said.

Sam and Dean exchanged a look. They could hear the suspicion in the man's tone. Not that Sam or Dean could blame the man. Their story didn't exactly sound 'solid' but the truth probably would have gotten them committed into the psych ward so they could deal with the suspicious looks and such.

"So how is she?" Sam asked, trying to delicately change the subject.

"The doctors aren't entirely sure but they said that after they get her hydrated, they might know more," Erica's mother said. As she spoke, her gaze shifted from Sam and Dean to her husband to her daughter. "They think it's just exhaustion and dehydration and that she'll be fine in a day or two. They want to keep her for observation after she wakes up though, just to make sure everything is okay."

Sam nodded, glancing at Dean. He saw his brother just watching the little girl right now, concern written all over Dean's face. He knew, though, that once they left St. Louis, Dean wasn't going to want to talk about it. In fact, Sam figured that Dean wouldn't want to talk about it even once they left this room.

"This is for your daughter," Sam said, placing the teddy bear on the bed with Erica. He reached into his pocket to pull out a bogus business card. It at least had his cell phone number on it in case the family wanted to contact him. "And this is my cell number. My brother and I have to hit to road but we'd really love to hear how Erica's doing after she wakes up. So feel free to give me a call, whenever. All right?"

Erica's mother reached for the card, nodding. Her hand was shaking a bit and there were tears in her eyes but she smiled slightly, glad for the concern that Sam and Dean were showing for her little girl. "Okay. Thank you," she softly said, almost hugging the card to her chest.

For a moment, Sam didn't seem to know what to say. "You're welcome," he softly said although he wasn't sure either of Erica's parents heard him. Their attention had already shifted to their daughter again. Sam glanced at Dean and nodded towards the door, a silent 'let's go'.

Dean nodded in response, taking one last look at Erica and her parents before walking out of the hospital room. He glanced at his little brother before he started to head for the elevators. He didn't say anything, just walked down the hall with Sam keeping in step beside Dean.

"You think they'll call?" Sam asked. The question was partial curiosity and partially an excuse to fill the silence for a moment.

Dean pushed the 'down' button for the elevator. He glanced at Sam again and shrugged. "I don't know," Dean said. "Probably not."

Sam sighed, knowing that his brother was most likely right. The family would probably try to put all of this behind them and that meant they'd toss out the card with Sam's cell phone number on it without a second thought. "Yeah, you're probably right," Sam said, nodding.

"Yeah, well, that's how the job goes," Dean said with an indifferent shrug. Stepping on the elevator, he gave Sam a little look as if to ask his brother to let it go.

Sam sighed and nodded both to the look and to what Dean said. He'd just have to believe the little girl was going to be okay and push the thought aside. His shoulders slumped a bit as he stared ahead, watching the elevator doors close.


	32. Chapter 32

**A/N:** And this, my friends, is the conclusion of the story. There is another on the way but I just started it so it might be awhile before I actually start posting it. In the meantime, enjoy this update, please!

* * *

Sam wasn't exactly sure what he was doing as he listened to the ringing on the other end of the line. Right now what he needed was someone to talk to. He needed someone to actually **listen**. He knew that he wasn't going to get that from Dean so he decided to just call the first person he could think of: Emerson. Sitting on the edge of his bed in the motel room, he was waiting for her to pick up, hoping that would be before her cell phone went to voice mail.

Dean had left about 15 minutes earlier after deciding to check out some nearby bar to unwind tonight. Sam knew what that meant so he decided to stay behind at the motel. Plus he wasn't really in the mood right now to have a couple of beers while Dean hit on every attractive girl in the bar. If he wanted a beer that bad, he could make a run to a convenience store for a six-pack or something. But that had been the least of his concerns. After his brother left, Sam had jumped in the shower. It was one of the few times when he could just think and he had needed time to think after all he and Dean had been through on this case.

Now he was sitting on the edge of the bed, anxiously bouncing his leg as he waited for Emerson to answer her phone. He was 'dressed' for bed and his hair was still damp from his shower but he wasn't concerned with any of that. All he wanted right now was to hear Emerson's voice and Sam knew that if she didn't pick up soon, her voice mail was going to pick up instead and he didn't want to have to leave her some lame message to give him a call when she had a chance. He wanted to actually talk to her right now if he could. When he heard the other line being picked up, Sam wasn't actually sure who or what was 'answering'. When he heard a 'hello', he smiled softly.

"Hey," Sam said, his voice a little soft. He was honestly a bit surprised by the sound of his own voice right now. It sounded 'small' and vulnerable to his own ears so he knew it had to sound the same way to Emerson. "What's up? How are you?"

There was a soft, sweet sounding laugh on the other end of the line. "Hey, Sam. You know I could ask the same of you," Emerson said. "Did you finish that case you were working on?"

Sam immediately nodded, easily forgetting that she wasn't in the room at the moment. "Yeah, we just wrapped it up. Most of the little girls made it out okay."

"Aww, Sam. What happened?"

Sam softly smiled at the way that Emerson seemed to pick up on that so quickly. Although he did think that his voice had cracked at least once when he spoke, which probably tipped her off as well. "They didn't all make it. One of the girls is still in a coma," he sadly said. "We … we just couldn't save them all."

"You can't save everyone," Emerson said, her own voice softer now. It was less vulnerable sounding than Sam's though and more of a reassuring sound, like she knew just how he felt. "It sucks, I know, but you just can't, Sam."

"A couple of them died before we'd even got there and I know we won't hear from this other girl's parents. We won't know if she pulls through or not." Sam's leg was still bouncing as he picked at some lint on the blanket, staring at his feet.

There was a bit of silence between them. Sam didn't know what else to say and it seemed like Emerson didn't know how to respond either. At least not right away. Sam just listened to the soft sound of Emerson breathing on the other end of the line. Somehow that sound was comforting to him. He closed his eyes and tried to imagine where she was right now, what she might be doing.

As much as it helped his state of mind, it made Sam wish that he was where she was instead of sitting in this motel room, alone, and missing her. It didn't even occur to him that he was missing Emerson. He just knew he felt this longing to be where she was right now. Maybe it was because he needed the comfort of being with someone else. Or maybe it was something else. He wasn't entirely sure.

It didn't seem like it was a long moment of silence to her but Emerson finally sighed softly, closing her eyes as she started to speak. "I am **so** sorry, Sam," she softly said. She genuinely was sorry too. Just from the sound of his voice, she was sure this had been a much tougher case than he was letting on. It stung to hear that sadness in Sam's voice and Emerson wished she could wrap him up right now in a big hug. It sounded to her like he needed that kind of comfort.

Sam heavily sighed on the other end of the line, taking a deep breath before saying anything. "Yeah, Dean went out to do whatever it is he's going to do to forget about this one," he said. "And I just needed someone to talk to."

Emerson smiled a little, glad that he'd decided to call her. She was sitting on the counter in her shop. There were boxes all around and the shelves were nearly empty. She was packing things up and selling the store. She'd even found a buyer for all of her leftover inventory. While she didn't have a break in her own 'case' just yet, Emerson knew she couldn't continue to run the store and hunt down whatever it was that was draining the kids in Mount Redding. She'd made her choice and wasn't going to back down. Of course she wasn't telling Sam that, not yet anyway. Right now he had enough on his mind and he didn't need to be worrying about her or what she was doing.

"I'm glad you called me then," she said, her voice soft and comforting. If she couldn't physically comfort Sam right now, then Emerson was going to do everything she could to offer him some verbal comfort. "I really wish I was there right now for you though."

"I wish you were too."

Emerson's smile grew at the sound of those five little words and her heart felt like it maybe skipped a beat there for a moment. She swore she could hear something in Sam's voice. Maybe it was his need to have someone with him. She knew that she felt pretty alone right now herself. Becky was barely speaking to her these days and the rest of the town would have been happy if Emerson just packed up and left in the middle of the night. She knew she could use some comfort of her own actually but tried not to let on how much she missed and needed Sam.

She softly giggled though and imagined that Sam was smiling right now too. She opened her eyes and looked around her shop, trying not to sigh at what she saw. The empty shelves and the boxes everywhere were really difficult to look at. "So you miss me, huh?" she playfully asked.

Sam chuckled on the other end. "Yeah, I really do," he said. "It would just be nicer to get to talk to you face to face. I mean I can close my eyes and picture you here and all but it would be nicer to talk face to face."

"Yeah," Emerson softly said. There was a wistfulness to the tone of her voice, this almost 'dreamy' quality. It made her laugh just thinking about it. "It's always nicer to talk to someone face to face. I've never been very good at the art of properly communicating over the phone."

"Considering how many times I've gotten your voice mail and not you on the line, yeah, I've noticed that," Sam said, amusement in his voice now.

Emerson was glad she could distract him although she would have listened to him talk and yell and cry and whatever else if that's what he needed right now. Maybe because she needed to smile a little more right now she was doing her best to make sure Sam was doing the same. Or at least that was her hope. "Yeah, that's more that I forget where I put my phone or just sometimes don't even remember to turn it on," she said with a shrug. "I'm better at face to face conversations. Not that I can't picture you here and pretend this is face to face but it's not the same."

Sam softly sighed and she was sure he felt the same way about that as she did. It was in the tone of his voice and even in the sound of his sigh. Emerson just swore she could hear it when she listened carefully. And right now she was listening very carefully. All she had was this connection to him on the phone and she was going to draw out this conversation as long as she could.

"Yeah, it's not."

Emerson bit her lip and nodded, trying to bite back the tears she felt stinging in her eyes already. "You know I miss you, right?"

Sam chuckled a little, nodding. He thought he heard her voice waiver but he wasn't sure. He was trying not to read too much into the tone of her voice or the sounds of her sighs or even the comfortable, brief silences. Still his mind seemed to 'go there' and it caused him to feel this empty sensation in the pit of his stomach and made him want to rush to Mount Redding so he could wrap her up in his arms and just make everything feel 'right' again.

"Yeah, I miss you too," Sam said with another little nod. "But tomorrow Dean and I will be back on the road and we can stop by to visit you for a bit. Maybe you could show me around town a little. I don't think I really got a chance to see much and I'd like to see more of your hometown."

"Sam …"

He sighed, knowing what she was going to say next. "Please, I just want to see you again," he softly said. Sam wasn't sure she could even hear him. It was almost a whisper but the sigh he heard in 'response' let him know that Emerson had heard him. "Don't you want to see me too?"

"Yes, but you can't. Not now, Sam. Please. Just give me a little more time."

Sam sighed and rubbed his eyes with the heel of one of his hands. He felt tired now, exhausted and worn out and ready to just sleep for a week or something. He knew he wouldn't get that kind of rest but it was what his body seemed to want right now. "Okay, I guess," Sam said with a shrug. "I just …"

"I know, Sam. Me too."

"Yeah …"

Emerson softly laughed on the either end of the line. "Get some sleep. You deserve the rest," she softly said.

The sound of her voice was almost enough to lull Sam to sleep already and he softly yawned. "Yeah, I am tired. I'll just … I'll call you tomorrow, okay?"

Emerson laughed again and Sam swore he could see her there in front of him, smiling at him and nodding. "Okay. Bye."

Sam chuckled, the sound kind of deeper because of that sleepy feeling coming over him. "Bye, Emerson."


End file.
